In May 2000 a Tennessee Department of Transportation crew building State Route 75 near the community of Gray found fossils, and instead of paving over them local officials kept the site for research and teaching; it became part of East Tennessee State University, which opened the Gray Fossil Site and Museum there in 2007. The fossils are 4.5 to 4.9 million years old, the first site of that age found in the Appalachian region, laid down in a pond in a sinkhole surrounded by warm, wet forest: an oval deposit about 220 metres by 180 and up to 39 metres deep, of fine clay and silt, with bones that are often exceptionally well preserved. It holds the largest known assemblage of fossil tapirs in the world, and research here has turned up new species of red panda, rhinoceros, pond turtle and even hickory tree.
The largest assemblage of fossil tapirs, and a new red panda · Early Pliocene, 4.5-4.9 mya
This ground is protected. Photograph it, record it, leave it where it lies. On US federal land the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act 2009 makes collecting vertebrate fossils an offence, and penalties are real.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
