The preserved brain tissue at Windover was scientifically important primarily because it existed — because it demonstrated that wet, tropical preservation conditions could maintain both cellular structure and DNA in ancient human tissue, opening a new class of archaeological sites for genetic analysis.

The specific genetic information recovered has been scientifically interesting but has left significant questions open.

That is not a failure.

It is the normal condition of science at the frontier.

The Health Of A Community — What Bones Record

The skeletal remains from Windover provide one of the most detailed pictures of the health and physical condition of an Early Archaic Florida population available from anywhere in the region.

The broad picture is of people who were generally well-nourished — the statures documented at Windover are robust, suggesting adequate caloric and protein intake — but who also experienced the physical stresses typical of mobile hunter-gatherer life.