The karstic Aucilla River of Northwest Florida is renowned for its well‐preserved late Pleistocene cultural material and Rancholabrean fauna. Much of this material was recovered by avocational SCUBA divers from displaced contexts in mid‐channel sinkholes, but underwater excavations into sediment banks on sink margins have demonstrated that faunal material and early artifacts can be recovered in situ from inundated terrestrial strata that contain dateable organics and microfossils useful for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Underwater environmental data document the transition of Aucilla River localities from isolated spring‐fed ponds into an inter‐connected fluvial system due to rising sea levels and climate amelioration with several major periods of sinkhole infilling during the late Quaternary. Late Pleistocene components on land are largely absent or are undateable; these components, located in a subtropical cypress swamp in shallow clay‐rich soils, tend to be less well‐preserved, but still contain a rich record of human use on the landscape.

中文翻译：

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美国佛罗里达州西北部奥科拉河流域晚更新世和全新世早期的地球考古框架

佛罗里达州西北部的岩溶Aucilla河以保存完好的晚更新世文化材料和Rancholabrean动物群而闻名。业余的SCUBA潜水员从中槽下沉坑的流离失所环境中回收了大部分这种材料，但是在下沉边缘对沉积物库的水下挖掘表明，可以就地恢复动物性材料和早期文物。来自淹没的地层，其中包含可用于古环境重建的过时的有机物和微化石。水下环境数据记录了由于第四纪晚期海平面上升和几个主要的沉陷期充填期而导致的海平面上升和气候改善，使得澳柯拉河地区从孤立的春季饲养池塘过渡到相互联系的河流系统。陆地上的晚更新世成分基本上不存在或不合时宜；这些成分位于富含粘土的浅土壤中的亚热带柏树沼泽中，保存得较差，但仍然包含丰富的人类使用记录。