Ten years ago, this was a big hole in the ground behind a home improvement store in Row, southern New Jersey.
However, 66 million years ago, when the dinosaurs became extinct, and many sea creatures died here, and sank to the shallow sea bottom of the time.
Due to the possibility of a prehistoric past, the former quarry hole has become the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum due to its past as a mass extinction cemetery.
Built in Mantua, New Jersey, about 20 miles from Philadelphia, the museum welcomed its first paid clientele last weekend. For Kenneth Lacobala, professor of paleontology and geology at nearby Rowan University and executive director of the museum, it is the culmination of a decade of work.
“We do a lot here and I don’t think it’s been done at any museum,” said Dr. Lacobala, best known for paleontology for the discovery of one of the biggest dinosaurs ever, the Dreadnought.
The fossil comes with a difficult message from Dr. Lacobala, creating a direct link between the mass extinction 66 million years ago and today’s rapidly changing climate.
Source: www.nytimes.com