Pollen Counts

Pollen Counts

Pollen counts and investigations made on behalf of researchers have yielded a startling piece of information. Researchers say 45-million-year-old pollen is yielding geological clues that Florida may be 10 million to 15 million years older than previously thought.

Until recently, Florida was believed to have been submerged beneath the ocean until the Oligocene epoch, 23 million to 34 million years ago.

University of Florida researchers say sediment collected from a deep injection well near Fort Myers contained local, land-based pollen, proving Florida had already risen from the ocean 45 million years ago during the early Eocene epoch, a university release said Wednesday.

The discovery that Florida was dry land during the early Eocene opens the possibility for researchers to explore the existence of land animals at that time, researchers say.

"As a paleontologist who studies the evolution of mammals, my first question is 'OK, if there was land here at that time, what kinds of animals lived here?'" Florida Museum of Natural History vertebrate paleontologist Jonathan Bloch said. "Most of our current understanding of the evolution of early mammals comes from fossils discovered out west."
Sources: http://onlinejournal.com

Pollen Counts