Welcome to
Paleo Preserve
Imagine a gulf coast Florida far
different from the one you know. Vast grassland
savannahs stretch to the horizon, cut by teaming 
rivulets.
Strange and exotic animals like saber cats, mastodons,
glyptodonts, and giant sloths roam the landscape.
Some thirty miles away, great white sharks over fifty
feet long cruise through the Gulf. It’s almost two
million years ago.
In 1983, scientific history was changed
when the world’s greatest collection of Pleistocene
fossils was uncovered at the Leisey Shell Pit in
southern Hillsborough County.
Volunteers organized by Tampa Bay paleontologist Frank Garcia worked with scientists to expose scores of fantastic creatures from prehistoric times, some of them unknown to science dating from .5 million - 1.1 million years BP!
Though the pit itself has long since
closed, many of the fossils 
discovered
there, as well as photographs and articles from its
excavation years, are on display at the Paleo Preserve
Fossil Museum.
This small, nonprofit museum started by Frank Garcia to
keep alive the history of the Leisey Shell Pit discovery
continues to educate the public about Florida’s amazing
fossils!
The Preserve is unique in the study of
paleontology because it opens a window on the creatures
of the early ice age -- 1.7 to 1.4 million years ago. It
tells us what the rest of Florida was like over the
millennia as well.
Office
Paleo Preserve Fossil Museum is open to the public
Saturdays 9 am until 2 pm.
The museum is located inside Camp Bayou Nature
Preserve.
The address is:
4140 24th Street SE
Ruskin, FL 33570
Directions from Tampa:
Take I-75 South to the Ruskin exit #240.
Go west on SR 674 approximately ½ mile to 24th Street
S.E. and follow it four miles south to Camp Bayou Nature
Preserve.
The museum is located on the grounds at Camp Bayou.
The Museum
Paleo Preserve Fossil Museum exists to educate young
and old about Florida’s amazing fossil record. In
1983, scientific history was changed when the world’s
greatest deposit of Pleistocene fossils was uncovered at
the Leisey Shell Pit in southern Hillsborough
County. Frank Garcia brought the importance of the
discovery to the attention of paleontologists at Florida
Museum of Natural History. Through Frank’s efforts
volunteers were recruited to excavate the site.
When excavation ceased, Frank started Paleontological
Education Preserve to share this amazing
discovery. Volunteers at Paleo Preserve Fossil
Museum continue to share the story through pictures,
articles, and most important…actual fossils!!
