Late Pleistocene Ingleside Fauna

The plaque lists the animals; the 1972 study of them by Ernest L. Lundelius Jr., for the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, explains the ground. The bones lay in sands and marls of an old freshwater pond, above clay laid down in a lagoon. Live Oak Ridge and the Ingleside terrace began as a barrier island and lagoon when the sea stood higher; the pond formed later, probably scoured by wind when the sea had dropped. Large tortoises in the fauna point to mild winters, and the ages of the fossil llamas suggest seasonal rainfall.

What the plaque says

Late Pleistocene Ingleside Fauna Known today as Swan Lake, this is the site of an archeological excavation that yielded one of the largest assortments of fossils found in a single locality in Texas. They were discovered in 1939 when highway engineers were digging for caliche to use in road building. Between 1939 and 1941 the fossils of 42 prehistoric vertebrates were excavated and sorted. Fossils found here represented such animals as the mammoth, saber-toothed tiger, bison, ground sloth, camel, alligator, tapir, and various species of fresh water fish. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Port Aransas — 8.1 mi
  The fishing town at the north end of Mustang Island, reached by a free state ferry that crosses the ship channel day and night, with a university marine lab begun in a one-room shack.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 12 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.
• Texas State Aquarium — 13 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 13 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• Early Ingleside Schools — 2.7 mi
• Ingleside — 2.7 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Aransas Pass — 3.5 mi
• Terminal Railroad — 3.9 mi