Seventy eight species of mammals and 18 species of reptiles,
birds and snails have been discovered on Samos. The majority of
the fossils were found clustered in nine small regions (a few
meters each) which have been termed bone beds or bone horizons.
Within a bone bed, the animal bones were all mixed together and
piled on top of each other. We know this from other bone beds
found elsewhere on Earth (Bernor et al. 1996). Thousands of
bones were also found at Pikermi (Miocene near Athens). In the
Natural History Museum of London there are two blocks where
jumbled bones were left intact. No pictures were ever taken of
the fossils in situ during the numerous excavations on Samos.
There are however a few unprepared blocks of bone masses. For
example, block Y at the American Museum of Natural History, and
two smaller blocks in Lausanne show a mass of jumbled bones. The
pattern is similar to other bone beds from other regions of the
world. Often a hippotherium (fossil horse) jaw will be open and
a long bone of a gir