Welcome to the East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Gray Fossil Site!

Scientists have discovered an entire ecosystem that existed on this site 4 to 7 million years ago. For the first time the world knows what the southern Appalachians looked like at the end of the time known as the Miocene Epoch.

Many of the plants and animals are extinct—others are still around, but not in eastern Tennessee. Some plants, like the oak and hickory tree, were part of the main diet for our Miocene animals and are still in the landscape today. Animals like the saber-toothed cat and pot bellied rhino are now extinct, but four species of turtle found in the Miocene world continue to lumber in our forests. The Gray site has provided the largest cache of tapir fossils any where in the world. Two new species, red panda and badger, have been discovered here..

The limestone bedrock—typical of Tennessee—led to the formation of a sinkhole which filled with sediment and water becoming a vibrant pond, rich in plants and animals. Like a magnet, this watering hole attracted a variety of animals. Some, like fish and frogs, lived at the pond permanently. Others, like rhinos, tapirs, and saber-toothed cats, visited from the surrounding forest to drink, swim, browse and hunt. Many died here leaving their bones for scientists to study. The fossil remains of the Gray site have been uniquely preserved by the rich organic matter that filled the sinkhole. As the climate changed, new ecosystems came and went. While Ice Age animals and humans moved in, the fossils, preserved in the sediment of the waterhole, waited centuries to be discovered.

Our paleontologists, staff, and volunteers have excavated thousands of specimens including alligators, camels, sloth, elephant, rhino, tapirs, peccary, and species totally new to science. The Gray Fossil Site is nearly five acres in size and 100 feet deep. There is plenty more to be discovered!

∞ copied directly from their webpage