I was amazed to learn that Florida, my lovely aquatic home, which was submerged as recently as 3 million years ago (give or take a million) used to be home to BIG BEASTS!
I was always under the impression that BIG BEASTS in Florida wasn’t a thing. We didn’t have dinosaurs. We missed out on that because we were too busy being underwater. And today’s Florida beasts are way smaller than their northern contemporaries, like deer and bears, due to adaptation. (Smaller bodies are more efficient in warm weather, expending less energy to regulate body temperature.)
But it turns out I was wrong and I’ve never been happier! Not only did we have BIG BEASTS, but we had WEIRD BIG BEASTS!
In our very own soggy backyards we used to play host to such beasts as Giant Giraffe-Camels, Obese Beavers and Hairy Elephants!
Giant Giraffe-Camel (AKA Long Necked Camel) (AKA Aepycamelus)
The Aepycamelus roamed Florida, and much of present day USA from Florida to California, during the Miocene Period (4.9 – 20.6 million years ago). It’s estimated the Aepycamelus had a run that lasted 15.7 million years until it died out, possibly, due to climate change. It had a small head, knobby knees and padded feet. Standing almost 10 feet high it presumably used it long neck to eat tree leaves, like our modern day giraffe.
Obese Beaver (AKA Giant Beaver) (AKA Castoroides Leiseyorum)
The C. Leiseyorum species, part of the larger Castoriodes genus, is a giant beaver found in Florida only. It is estimated that it grew up to 7 feet long and could weigh up to 276 lbs. At about 6″ long it’s buckteeth were much larger than modern day beaver buckteeth, yet it is entirely possible it never constructed dams as it’s teeth were not the chisel-like, wood-chucking beaver teeth we see today. Also, the C. Leiseyorum brain was much smaller and therefore probably did not interact with its environment as cleverly as our smart, modern, dam constructing beavers.
The C. Leiseyorum fossil was found in a pit in Hillsborough County and was dated to 2.1 million years ago. The Castoriodes went extinct about 10,000 years ago for unknown reasons, but it appears, from the fossil records, that they were on the decline long before then.
Hairy Elephant (AKA Woolly Mammoth) (AKA Mammuthus primigenius)
The Mammuthus primigenius is well known for stoically trekking through the Ice Age; but they came down to Florida too for the warmer climes (although Florida still had real snowfall during this time). The Florida Mammoths were about the size of a modern day African elephant and behaved similarly too. Many mammoth and mastodon fossils are still randomly found in Florida, such as a Florida toddler finding a fossilized mammoth tooth next to a retention pond in April 2019 while looking for rocks to throw into the water.
