Steven C. Wallace, Blaine W. Schubert, Jim I. Mead

Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology, Department of Geosciences, East Tennessee State University, USA

  The Gray Fossil Site (GFS), discovered in 2000, is an extraordinary Late Miocene-Pliocene fossil locality located in the heart of the Appalachians (Northeast Tennessee), and dates from 4.5-7 Ma. While this site serves as the foundation of the Center's research activities, the projects are highly diverse, ranging from Mio-Pliocene floras and faunas of eastern North America and Eurasia to Ice Age faunas of the Appalachians and Mexico, to the paleobiology and evolutionary relationships of Neogene mammals, reptiles, and amphibians worldwide.

  The GFS yields new and rare discoveries such as the most complete skeleton of Teleoceras (an ancient rhinoceros) yet found in eastern North America, a new species of red panda that marks only the second record of this animal in North America, and a newly identified species of an ancient plant-eating badger.