Venice Area Fossils

Venice Area Fossils from the Burgess Collection

Over 365 fossils collected from Sarasota and Charlotte counties are featured. They include specimens of creatures from land and sea such as mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, camels, horses, rhinoceros, bison, turtles, alligators, and sharks.

Most of the specimens are from the Pleistocene period of Earth’s history dating from two million to ten thousand years ago. Roy and Helen Burgess were avid fossil collectors for 15 years and donated a portion of their collection to the Venice Museum & Archives in 1993.