Wildlife Photograph

Ijams members to tour fossil site

Saturday March 22, 2008
Saturday, April 12: trip to Gray Natural History Museum

Our members-only "Not-so-far-afield" road trips return in April. Two years ago we visited the gray fossil site near Johnson City for a tour of the digs. When we were there the new Natural History Museum at the location was under construction. It's now open!

Discovered in May 2000, the fossil site in upper East Tennessee has proven to be one of the richest in the world. From the fossils recovered so far, researchers date the deposit to be 7 to 4.5 million years old, a period of geologic time known as the late Miocene and early Pliocene. Most other fossil deposits are a few inches or maybe a foot or two thick. Core samples at Gray have determined the silty, organic rich sediments are up to 130-feet deep and cover four to five acres. Too late to have dinosaurs, but paleontologists have uncovered some very curious creatures like the complete skeleton of a rhinoceros and other fossil oddities: alligator, short-faced bear, camel, peccary, shovel-nosed elephant, saber-toothed cat, numerous frogs, shrews, snakes, turtles, tapirs and, perhaps the biggest surprise of all, an early panda.

Also at the museum is a special traveling exhibit: a cast skeleton of Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever discovered. Weighing in at 3,500 pounds, the cast of the original is on loan from the Field Museum in Chicago.

Join Ijams naturalists Pam Petko-Seus and Stephen Lyn Bales on Saturday, April 12 at 9 a.m. We'll carpool from Ijams. Our members-only group tour will include the museum's Gray fossil exhibits, paleontology lab, dig site plus Sue, the traveling T. Rex exhibit. Cost is $9 per person. To register call Sheila: 577-4717, ext. 10. Bring a lunch.

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