Edelman Fossil Park

The Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, located in Mantua Township, New Jersey, features a 66-million-year-old 6-inch (150 mm) bone bed set into a 65-acre (26 ha) former marl quarry. It is currently the only facility east of the Mississippi River that has an active open quarry for public Community Dig Days. Formed at the end of the Cretaceous Period during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, this rich fossil deposit is abundant in marine life which is indicative of the shallow sea that once covered the area that would become Southern New Jersey. The archaeological site has been developed into a park and museum with public programs, which opened on March 29, 2025. Named after donors Jean and Ric Edelman, it is owned and operated by Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
The bedrock of Gloucester County, where Edelman Fossil Park is located, is composed of alternating layers of sand, silt, and clay due to fluctuating sea levels since the Cretaceous. These sedimentary sequences are known as facies. Sedimentary rocks of this area have been dated from between the Lower Cretaceous to the Miocene (145 to 5.3 mya). The entire area of Southern New Jersey is known as the coastal plain. It was submerged under a shallow sea until the late Pliocene when the ocean receded as the Greenland ice sheet formed 3 million years ago. The Coastal Plain begins on a southeast diagonal between Carteret and Trenton with sediments overlapping the rockier Piedmont Formation to the northwest.
The specific layer in which the fossils are located is known as marl, a dark to light green, manganese-rich, clay that forms when algae, aquatic plants, and aquatic animals decay over a long period in hard-water streams rich in calcium carbonate. This layer is typically located in swamps, resulting in a covering of a dark organic-rich layer of peat. Because of marl's formation as the result of decaying plants and algae in soft sediment, it is a great harborer of fossils including numerous invertebrates as well as larger land-dwelling animals whose bodies were swept downstream and laid here to rest.
Within marl sediments is the mineral vivianite (Fe3(PO4)2 · 8H2O) that forms as a result of reduction-oxidation reactions. This deep blue to bluish-green crystal begins to oxidize in the presence of oxygen, converting Fe to Fe until the blue color becomes almost black and opaque. Because of this inevitable darkening, there is no such thing as stable vivianite. Embedded into these layers are also schist dropstones, indicative of the ancient glaciations that occurred in this area during glacial periods.
“This is something that I personally and lots of other paleontologists have been looking for all around the world,” said the museum's executive director Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, adding that he had sought such a layer in southern Patagonia, the foothills of the Himalayas and elsewhere. And I found it behind the Lowe’s in New Jersey,” he said.
The following are some of the fossils that have been found on site at the Edelman Fossil Park, most of which are extinct species. An asterisk (*) indicates an extant, or living, species.
Key stakeholders at the Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park at Rowan University broke ground on a $73 million new endeavor on October 9, 2021 – The Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum. It opened in March 2025 and anticipates 200,000 visitors per year. Visitors to the museum will be transported to the moments surrounding earth's fifth mass extinction: the moments that led to a mass die-off when non-avian dinosaurs and 75% of all other species went extinct.
Guests will be immersed into the world of the Late Cretaceous as it looked in coastal New Jersey alongside both land-dwelling and aquatic creatures fighting for survival. The 44,000 square foot museum will feature interactives and hands-on learning stations, exploration zones, and a paleo-themed playground that are perfect for families. Elsewhere, the Hall of Extinction & Hope will help visitors understand what led to the dinosaurs' demise as well as what we can learn and do about our current climate and biodiversity crises. To provide guests with an even more hands-on learning experience, a Fossil Research Workshop, virtual reality chamber, and of course the fossil dig experience will be available. The Café will feature sustainable food options, and the museum's gift shop will offer items from local artisans.
The Edelman Fossil Park Museum will be New Jersey's largest public net-zero facility, with 100% of its energy coming from a combination of green energy available in New Jersey's power grid and renewable energy produced on-site. The museum will feature geothermal water-source heat pump heating and cooling systems, a photovoltaic solar field, and the repurposing of on-site materials for interior construction and design. No fossil fuels will be combusted for museum operations and no greenhouse gasses will be released into the atmosphere. The surrounding grounds will utilize native plantings, and plant and animal habitats and other key landscape features will be restored as part of the design footprint.
39°45′43″N 75°07′37″W﻿ / ﻿39.762°N 75.127°W﻿ / 39.762; -75.127