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ETSU Museum of Natural History and Gray Fossil Site

City: Gray, TN
Region: East Tennessee

It’s a fossil adventure 5 million years in the making! Discover saber-toothed cat, short-faced bear, ground sloth, rhino, alligator, camel, shovel-tusked elephant, Eurasian badger, the world’s largest collection of fossil tapirs, and the world’s only near-complete fossil red panda!

The ETSU and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Visitor Center at the Gray Fossil Site is dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biodiversity of the Southern Appalachians through time, using an interdisciplinary approach. The Gray Fossil Site covers more than five acres, a Miocene site dated at 4.5 to 7 million years old, containing fossilized remains of an entire ecosystem of plants and animals.

A series of sinkholes, formed from a collapsed cave, created a watering hole that drew animals from near and far. For some unlucky animals, the sinkhole became a trap that preserved them as fossils for the ages.

With less than 2 percent of the site excavated, thousands of fossil specimens have already been recovered!

The Museum is open daily, 8:30 a.m. to 5p.m. and offers numerous educational and outreach programs, activities, and special lectures, as well as new temporary exhibits each season. Join in on hourly guided tours of upstairs exhibits, on-site research laboratory and collections, the dig site outside and dry screening activity stations!

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