Where: Washington County, Tennessee (36.4° N, 82.5° W: paleocoordinates 36.6° N, 81.2° W)
• coordinate based on nearby landmark
• outcrop-level geographic resolution
When: Late/Upper Hemphillian to Late/Upper Hemphillian (10.3 - 4.9 Ma)
• "4.5 to 7 Myr (late Miocene to early Pliocene" (meaning late Hemphillian to early Blancan)"
•Samuels et al., 2018: "Considering the Gray Fossil Site fauna in total, a revised estimate of the age of the Gray Fossil Site is Early Pliocene near the Hemphillian–Blancan transition, likely between 4.9 and 4.5 Ma (Fig. 2)."
• member-level stratigraphic resolution
Environment/lithology: sinkhole; argillaceous, sandy siltstone and conglomerate
•"finely laminated clays, silts, and fine sands intermixed with isolated gravel lenses that fill a former sinkhole... up to 39 m thick... result of a small lake or pond that formed within the sinkhole" (Wallace and Wang 2004)
Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils, microfossils
Reposited in the FLMNH
Collection methods: quarrying,
Primary reference: S. C. Wallace and X. Wang. 2004. Two new carnivores from an unusual late Tertiary forest biota in eastern North America. Nature 431:556-559 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details
Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis
PaleoDB collection 26574: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 17.10.2002, edited by Richard Hulbert, Evangelos Vlachos, Mark Uhen, Patricia Holroyd, Jonathan Marcot, Grace Varnham, Bethany Allen and Nicholas Famoso
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
unclassified | |
Pinopsida | |
Angiospermae | |
Celtis sp. Linnaeus 1753 hackberry
Ulmus sp. Linnaeus 1753 elm | |
Salix sp. Linnaeus 1753 willow | |
Betula sp. Linnaeus 1753 birch
Alnus sp. Miller 1754 alder | |
Quercus sp. Linnaeus 1753 oak | |
Carya sp. Nuttall 1818 hickory | |
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Fraxinus sp. Linnaeus 1753 ash | |
Caryophyllaceae indet. Jussieu 1789 carnation | |
"Gramineae indet." = Poaceae
"Gramineae indet." = Poaceae Barnhart 1895 true grass | |
Cyperaceae indet. Jussieu 1789 sedge | |
Gnathostomata | |
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Aves | |
Passeriformes indet. Linnaeus 1758 perching bird | |
Reptilia | |
Alligator sp. Daudin 1809 alligator | |
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cf. Sistrurus sp. Garman 1883 pigmy rattlesnake | |
Nerodia sp.8, cf. Neonatrix sp.8, cf. Regina sp., Pantherophis sp.8, Thamnophis sp.8, Colubrinae indet.8, Pituophis sp.8, Zilantophis schuberti n. gen. n. sp.8, Masticophis sp.8
cf. Regina sp. Baird and Girard 1853 crayfish snake
Thamnophis sp.8 Fitzinger 1843 garter snake ETMNH-9261 (posterior trunk vertebra); ETMNH-9448 (posterior trunk vertebra); ETMNH- 11961 (midtrunk vertebra)
Colubrinae indet.8 Oppel 1811 colubrid snake possibly Coluber sp. or Masticophis sp.; ETMNH-9244 and ETMNH-9401 (midtrunk vertebra);
Zilantophis schuberti n. gen. n. sp.8 Jasinski and Moscato 2017 colubrid snake Holotype: ETMNH-9557 (posterior trunk vertebra); ETMNH-9245, caudal vertebra; ETMNH- 9273, midtrunk vertebra; ETMNH-9292, caudal vertebra; ETMNH 9324, anterior trunk vertebra; ETMNH-9413, trunk vertebra; ETMNH-9431, anterior trunk vertebra.
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Chrysemys sp. Gray 1844 painted turtle | |
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Sternotherus palaeodorus n. sp.4 Bourque and Schubert 2015 musk turtle ETMNH 13912 (Figs. 2, 3), nearly complete carapace and plastron of an adult. Specimen is missing the right P2, right epiplastron, right hyoplastron, right xiphiplastron, and right hypoplastral buttress
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Mammalia | |
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Gomphotheriidae indet. Hay 1922 gomphothere | |
Teleoceras aepysoma n. sp.11
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"Tapiravus polkensis" = Tapirus polkensis
"Tapiravus polkensis" = Tapirus polkensis Olsen 1960 tapir | |
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cf. Megatylopus sp. Matthew and Cook 1909 camel | |
cf. Machairodus sp. Kaup 1833 cat | |
Canidae indet. Fischer de Waldheim 1817 canid | |
Plionarctos sp. Frick 1926 bear | |
Pristinailurus bristoli n. gen. n. sp.
Pristinailurus bristoli n. gen. n. sp. Wallace and Wang 2004 red panda | |
Arctomeles dimolodontus n. sp. Wallace and Wang 2004 badger | |
Neurotrichus sp.9, Parascalops grayensis n. sp.9, Mioscalops sp.9, Magnatalpa fumamons n. gen. n. sp.9
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Soricidae indet. Fischer 1814 shrew | |
Rodentia indet. Bowdich 1821 rodent | |
Amphibia | |
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