The valleys along the Apalachicola River are home to many species that were forced here in the Ice Age e and now remain far away from their populations further north, like the copperhead snake and an astonishing variety of amphibians.
During the Ice Age, Florida was crucial to the survival of many such mild-weather species. They couldn't have withstood the cold of north, and without this refuge, they would simply have become extinct. Another leftover, but one that arrived from the opposite direction.