Abstract
Three nuchal bones from peat deposits in the lower Wacissa River represent Late Pleistocene–Holocene records of the spotted turtle, Clemmys guttata. These are the first fossils of this rare species from Florida and the first verifiable records, fossil or living, from the Aucilla River Drainage Basin. The new records and the absence of older fossils indicate that C. guttata arrived in Florida late in geologic time and that the scattered isolated populations of C. guttata in the state today are naturally occurring and not the result of human introductions as has been suggested. The provenience of the Wacissa River fossils and the oldest fossils of Clemmys support the Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States as a plausible region of origin for the genus and the species C. guttata.
