Baby Tapir at Gray Fossil Site

The Gray Fossil Site is one of the coolest things we have near our mountain. Whenever we have guests I take them to check out this amazing place. The Johnson City Press has just reported that a complete juvenile tapir fossil has been found.

There’s a half-ton, fully jacketed fossil of a complete tapir sitting on the ground at the Gray fossil site.

Within the next week, a helicopter could be called in to lift the plaster-coated fossil to the front door of the nearby East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Visitor Center.

In the museum’s laboratory the unique and extremely rare find will be analyzed for information about the life and ecosystem that thrived in the region 4.5 million-7 million years ago, during the Miocene Age.