Gray Fossil Site

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The Gray Fossil Site is a Late Miocene-epoch assemblage of fossils located near the unincorporated town of Gray in Washington County, Tennessee. It was discovered in May 2000 in the course of a project to widen State Route 75 near its intersection with Interstate 26. The site was originally a semi-circular sinkhole that harbored a pond environment and has yielded remains of the ancient plants and animals that lived or watered there. Among the vertebrate fossils found at the site are the those of frogs, turtles and tapirs. The site has also yielded the most complete skeleton of Teleoceras (an ancient rhinoceros) yet found in eastern North America and the tooth of a red panda that marks only the second record of this animal in North America. State Route 75 was realigned to protect the site, and East Tennessee State University is building a museum at the site that is expected to open in 2007.

1 Fossil fauna
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Fossil fauna

[edit] Fish

undetermined taxon or taxa

[edit] Amphibians

Frogs (several taxa)
Salamanders (several taxa)

[edit] Reptiles

Alligators have recently^{[citation needed]} been found at the fossil site, and they are thought to have come from a modern genus^{[citation needed]}.
Snakes (several taxa)
Turtles (four taxa)

[edit] Mammals

Shrews (several taxa)
Small weasel
Arctomeles dimolodontus (prehistoric badger)
Pristinailurus bristoli (prehistoric Red panda)
Short-faced bears of the genus Plionarctos are another of the mammals found at the site.
Small dog (fox-sized)
Another taxon found at the site was a Machairodus sabertooth cat, more closely related to Homotherium than to Smilodon.
Shovel-tuskers, or gomphotheres, are also present at the site. At the time it is unknown which species they belong to, but it is most likely that they belong to either one of the genera Anacus, Cuvieronus, or Gomphotherium.
Teleoceras is a large, hippo-like animal. They are found in colossal numbers in Agate Fossil Beds and Ashfall Fossil Beds. The most complete specimen of this creature in the Eastern US was found in this site.
Prehistoric camel
Tapirus polkensis (prehistoric tapir)
Peccary (undetermined^{[verification needed]} taxon)
Rodents (several taxa)