Post by L Roebuck on Sept 13, 2006 19:04:27 GMT -5
An article "Mystery of the Buggytop Beast" by Mary Patten Priestley and Dr. James X. Corgan appears in the September/October 2006 issue of the Tennessee Conservationist Magazine. According to this article two women hikers botanist Mary Priestley and Ethel King found a 4 inch long fossilized upper jaw in a rocky streambed in the forest which was in close proximity to Buggytop Cave. Dr. James Corgan identified the jawbone as member of the genus 'Diadectes' or a close related genus, a borderline group of a "reptile-like amphibian" or an "amphibiam-like reptile". The discovery of this specimen suggests "The Buggytop Beast" is approximately 350 million years old. The Beast was a land dwelling herbivore and the hiker’s find is the first specimen ever recorded in the southeastern U.S.