Before James Hunt built the Covered Bridge and named the city Coral Springs in 1963...
Before Henry Lyons planted thousands of green beans on thousands of acres in Broward County starting in 1919...
1845 U.S. Flag with 27 Stars LEAV E US ALONE blue orange red white green The first Florida flag was used at the inauguration of Governor William Mosely red white red The Florida State flag used today was adopted in 1900. Long before Florida became a State in 1845...
Even before Ponce de Leon discovered land on Easter Day in 1513 and named it La Florida the Land of Flowers...
Whereʼs Disney World? S. Carolina Alabama Georgia Florida Coral Springs 210 million years ago, the entire peninsula of Florida was under water, so no Dinosaurs of the Jurassic Period visited. This was before written history, a time called prehistoric.
River Mullins Park 10,000 years ago, when the water receded, the Dinosaurs had all died and were extinct. It was now the age of mammals, the Cenozoic Age. They migrated all over Florida including a place now called Mullins Park, where there was a river.
C A T R U L E R These mammals were very different from their descendants. They were much BIGGER as Coral the cat will illustrate.
This 17-foot Giant Ground Sloth (Megatherium) was the largest land mammal to live in Florida, and is the official State Extinct Animal. The Giant Ground Sloth grew as tall as a house and weighed 6 tons. It was a herbivore and ate tree leaves and branches while sitting on its tail like a kangaroo.
shoes shoes shoes Mastodons were 8-foot-tall herbivores and ate leaves off of tree branches. They had large tusks. Their molars were the size of shoe boxes. They grew 6 sets of teeth over a 60-year period.
The Giant Armadillo (Glyptodont) was the size of a Volkswagen Beetle automobile and looked like a small tank. It was a reptile and layed eggs. It was also a herbivore and ate coarse vegetation.
The Terror Bird (Titanis) couldnʼt fly, but at 7 feet tall and at a speed of 70 miles per hour, it did not need to fly to find food. They ate anything that moved except Saber-Tooth Cats. The cats were their predator, and ate them.
The Saber-Tooth Cat (Smilodon) was about the size of a modern lion, but weighed 400 pounds. Its tail was shorter but its fangs were nine inches long. It was a carnivore, and ate mastodons, horses, bison and Titanis.
Mammoths stood 14 feet high and ate about 700 pounds of veggies a day. They had 10-foot tusks to dig up food and scare off enemies. Some tusks had flat sides that might show the mammoth was left tusked or right tusked, like being left-handed or right-handed.
The Alligator (Alligator Mississippienis) might look familiar, but 10,000 years ago they were 13 to 15 feet long. They had over 80 teeth. When they wore out, new ones would grow, as many as 2,000-3,000 in a lifetime.
Camels (Camelids) came in several sizes from 12-foot Giraffe Camels that ate leaves from treetops, to tall slender varieties that ate grass. They might not have had humps.
Llamas (Paleolama) stood 6 feet tall with 2 toes on each foot. They were grazers and had a split upper lip which let them spit with great accuracy. They migrated to South America.
Horses (Equus) were the size of Greyhounds. Some migrated west across the Bering Strait through Asia and Europe. The ones that remained became extinct. When the Spanish came to explore America, they brought descendants of the horse.
Tapirs (Tapiradae) are descendants of horses. They had long flexible noses like a Mammothʼs trunk. They used them for browsing and maybe fishing, as they liked the water.
Short-Faced Cave Bears (Arctoduc Simus) had shorter bodies, longer legs, and bigger feet, the better to run fast and catch more animals to eat. Guess where they lived?
The Opossum (Didelphis) is the only marsupial in North America. The female carries babies in her pouch. When they get too big, they sit on her back. They all migrated to South America, but came back. They use their prehensile tails to grab and hold objects, or just hang upside down.
All of these animals are extinct! Only their smaller descendants survived. So how do we know the big ones lived in Mullins Park? The Apple Snail tells us.
Apple snails only live in fresh water like the river in Mullins Park. So, people who found prehistoric bones and also found Apple Snail shells knew they were looking at land-based mammal bones.
Apple Snails are still living today in fresh water in the Everglades, and are a favorite snack for Alligators. They are the only creature that has stayed the same size over 10,000 years. Help the Apple Snail find her eggs.
Word Search Prehistoric Coral Springs P T S M I L O D O N S R O E X T I N C T E V W A P M X K A M A L L P S P O R A U G A J O K R L T S O P M Z S W L C E O O S T Q U M T Y L A H T R U A R L B O F I G I H E M G T L W D T D L S O S L I A I H O K A E T R I A L P N Q N V M M O S O R L I S P F U R A R E T E A R A B Y P A C I N R F M C E N O Z O I C O O D N I M S S I N A T I T M A M M O T H T I G E R How to play: All the words listed below appear in the puzzle horizontally, vertically, diagonally, even backward! ALLIGATOR ARMADILLO CAMEL CAPYBARA CENOZOIC EXTINCT HORSE JAGUAR LLAMA MAMMOTH MASTODON MULLINS OPOSSUM PREHISTORIC SLOTH SMILODON TAPIR TITANIS TORTOISE
A walk in the Park 10,000 years ago... Across 5. Descendants live in Coral Springs canals 6. Where wild things were 8. Big Bird 9. Early Elephant 11. Age of mammals 13. One hump or two 15. All gone 16. Big cat Down 1. Long-nosed mammal 2. It now lives in Peru 3. Before written history 4. Babies ride on momʼs back 6. Early four-tusked elephant 7. Grew as big as a Volkswagen 10. Equus 12. Lived in a cave 14. Giant-sized
Extinct! We would like to give recognition to the volunteers of the City of Coral Springs Historical Advisory Committee for their wonderful ideas and edits, especially Vice Mayor Roy Gold, Janis Humpage, Steve Scali, Rachel Galvin, Barbara Wolf, Al Nigro and Gina Orlando (homo sapiens). Thanks to Janis Humpage for the word search and snail maze puzzles, and to her cat Miki (felis domestica), model for Coral the Cat. Appreciation to the Communications and Marketing Department including Traci Parrish, whose charming line drawings brought the extinct animals of prehistoric Mullins Park to life, and to Christine Parkinson Jahrsdoerfer for directing the project. Written by: Wendy Wangberg Illustrations: Traci Parrish Janis Humpage Paul Briggs
This Activity Book belongs to: City of Coral Springs 9551 West Sample Road Coral Springs, Florida 33065 www.coralsprings.org/history