Team Penning Horses for Sale near Merritt Island, FL

About Merritt Island, FL

Merritt Island owes its name to the king of Spain. The entire island was part of a land grant given by the king to a nobleman named Merritt. Archaeological excavations have uncovered the fossils of extinct animals such as mastodons, giant land tortoise, camel, glyptodont, horse, mammoth, giant armadillo, peccary, and tapir, which lived in the area up to 11,000 years ago. Their extinction was part of a larger North American die-off in which native horses, mastodons and other camelids also died out. Possibilities for extinction include global climate change and hunting pressure from the arrival of the Clovis people, who were prolific hunters with distinct fluted stone tools which allowed for a spear to be attached to the stone tool.