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  News from the ETMNH

Fossil skull of a flat-headed peccary, Platygonus compressus, from Bat Cave, Missouri.

Ice Age peccaries had babies in the spring and spent the winter in caves

July 04, 2019

Thanks to an abundance of fossils in Bat Cave, Missouri, paleontologists have been able to interpret seasonal social habits in the extinct flat-headed peccary, which lived tens of thousands of years ago during the Late Pleistocene Epoch.

Diver with Protocyon jaw and vertebra

Ice Age animals from an underwater cave in Mexico reveal a history of ancient migrations

May 20, 2019

In a deep pit inside an underwater cave in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, paleontologists have discovered the fossils of two unexpected carnivorans, a bear and a wolf-like predator which were once thought to have lived only in South America. Fossils from Middle America are rare, and these ancient predators help shed light on the history of animal evolution and migration through the region.

The cast of “Little Guy” (ETMNH 609) mounted on display in the ETSU Museum of Natural History at the Gray Fossil Site. Photo by Steven Wallace.

A surprising new species of rhino from the Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee

May 15, 2019

The Gray Fossil Site in East Tennessee preserves the remains of a diverse ecosystem dating to a time called the Late Hemphillian Stage and home to tapirs, alligators, mastodons, red pandas, and more. Now, a study published in the Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History unveils the latest new species from the site, a rhinoceros named Teleoceras aepysoma. At an estimated 4.5-4.9 million years old, these were among the very last rhinos in North America.

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