We have officially passed the 10,000 mark for cataloged Montbrook specimens! Check out the ‘Online Specimen Database‘ blog post for more information about how to access the finds.
Behold the 10,000th specimen! It’s an upper premolar of a baby gomphothere found by Luke Andrews on Oct. 29th. (The scale bar is in inches).
Upper premolar of a baby gomphothere.
Upper premolar of a baby gomphothere.
Upper premolar of a baby gomphothere.
Upper premolar of a baby gomphothere.
Upper premolar of a baby gomphothere (inch scale bar). Florida Museum photo by Rachel Narducci.
Our First 10,000 Specimens
Here is a break down of the first 10,000 creatures cataloged from Montbrook:
| Turtles | 6204 | 62% |
| Bony Fish | 1939 | 19.4% |
| Alligator | 744 | 7.4% |
| Gomphothere | 441 | 4.4% |
| Other Mammals | 303 | 3% |
| Sharks and Rays | 203 | 2% |
| Snakes | 75 | 0.8% |
| Birds | 49 | 0.5% |
| Frogs and Salamanders | 42 | 0.4% |
Top 10 Florida Fossil Sites
These are the largest Florida vertebrate fossil sites in terms of number of cataloged specimens.
| Site Name | #Specimens | County | Age (years before present) |
| Thomas Farm | 60,932 | Gilchrist | 18 million |
| Leisey Shell Pit 1A | 45,757 | Hillsborough | 1.2 million |
| Love Bone Bed | 42,717 | Alachua | 9 million |
| Inglis 1A | 16,281 | Citrus | 1.8 million |
| McGehee Farm | 15,192 | Alachua | 8.5 million |
| Reddick 1A | 10,451 | Marion | 18 thousand |
| Montbrook | 10,017 | Levy | 5 million |
| Aucilla River 3J | 9,996 | Jefferson | 11 thousand |
| Palmetto Mine Micro Site | 8,852 | Polk | 4.5 million |
| Haile 7G | 7,158 | Alachua | 2 million |
Once all Montbrook specimens are cataloged, it should be in fourth place at a minimum, and may even reach the #2 spot!