The Center for Florida History combines interactive experiences, exhibitions, and objects to tell the story of Florida's historical and cultural development, from prehistory to present.
The Center is home to the most complete fossil record discovered in Florida. The exhibit centers around the impressive 13-foot tall skeleton of the Eremotherium laurilardi or Giant Ground Sloth which was excavated in 1975 in an important Pleistocene fossil site called the Daytona Bone Bed. This vegetarian could have weighed three to five tons and eaten a daily ration of 300 pounds of plants abundant in the area.
The best-known specimens of the rare Cuvieronius Elephant were also uncovered at the site. It was one of three species of elephant living in Volusia County during the time of the sloth. It was previously thought that the elephant existed in West Florida and became extinct one million years ago, but the fossil discoveries in Daytona date back only 130,000 years.