After thrilling fossil find, dreary fiscal news

SEMINOLE — Columbian mammoths and glyptodons and humongous armadillos, oh my!

Those are just a few of the creatures that called Florida home 12,000 to 100,000 years ago. While some migrated to other parts of the United States, South America or Europe, others died off. But they left something behind — bones that literally began popping up in Boca Ciega Millennium Park last year.

Now that the dig has stopped, Pinellas County, which owns the park, is considering giving thousands of bones that have been found to the University of Florida for study and eventual display.

But it's unclear if there are still bones or other artifacts waiting to be discovered, and the chance to find out may be fading in the reality of tight budgets.

County officials have suggested cutting about $4.1-million from the budget of the parks and leisure department. The proposal would eliminate some jobs and kick out park managers who live on the property. Maintenance staffers would travel from park to park.

The County Commission plans a workshop Thursday to discuss various budget proposals. A final decision on the future of Millennium Park's employees is scheduled to be announced to them in July.

The proposal has sparked picketing from a group that wants to save the parks. The group's Web site says that the lack of supervision would increase vandalism, reduce safety and eliminate educational programs for children. While that may be true of all the county parks, the group's pickets have located themselves in front of Millennium Park, with its treasure trove of fossils.

When the park was built in the late 1990s, no one disturbed the creek bed running through the pines. Then, last year, a 16-year-old high school student went slogging through the area to practice nature photography.

She noticed a black rock and took it home to her older brother. The two researched it and found that it was the tooth of a long-extinct creature.

When their conclusion was confirmed by local paleontology experts, they called park officials. Sierra Sarti-Sweeney had discovered the biggest trove of fossils in Pinellas since the 1920s or 1930s.

Park officials worked in secret for four weeks and then invited the public to help when news of the find got out.

"We said, 'Come on in and help us because they're your fossils,' " said Judy Jarosz, park supervisor. "Whole families came out."

The youngest was 8 years old; the oldest, 82. At times, 30 people labored along the creek bank.

"It was dirty and cold and messy and they loved it," Jarosz said. "It was no easy task. It really took a toll on your back."

Four months and 1,200 volunteer hours later, they had "thousands upon thousands" of bones in 30 boxes.

"We could not have recovered what we did without the Tampa Bay Fossil Club or the public," Jarosz said.

When the most easily accessible fossils had been found, the county shut down the dig because it does not have the manpower to monitor volunteer excavations. But the rangers do patrol the area to make sure no one is digging in the area.

So far, 29 creatures have been identified, including adult, juvenile and infant Columbian mammoths, glyptodons (sometimes spelled glyptodont), opossums, armadillos the size of Volkswagen Beetles, sloths, rabbits, horses, tapirs, giant tortoises, large bison, and peccaries. But many smaller bones have not been identified.

That's a job for the University of Florida's Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. If the County Commission agrees, the fossils will be sent there. The museum has the capability of studying the fossils and making sure they are safe.

While the site is not the richest found in Florida, it will give researchers a chance to have a better idea of the animals that lived in the state 12,000 to 100,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era, said Richard Hulbert, the museum's vertebrate paleontology collections manager.

Jarosz, who helped oversee the creation of Millennium Park, said she felt lucky to have the fossils in her park.

"I've been doing this for 19 years and I've yet to pick up another mammoth" in any other park, she said.