Sewell, NJ — The new Edelman Fossil Park and Museum takes visitors on a journey back in time to encounter some native dinosaurs, discovered in South Jersey. Director Dr. Kenneth Lacovara highlights that despite the common association of dinosaurs with places like Montana or Patagonia, New Jersey played a significant role in paleontology with the discovery of the world’s first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton just 11 miles away in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
Adjacent to the modern museum is a quarry where paleontologists made notable discoveries and where visitors have the opportunity to make their own findings. Dr. Locovara encourages visitors to explore the quarry, emphasizing that they can unearth a 66-million-year-old fossil with their own hands and take it home, providing them with a firsthand experience of a genuine scientific discovery.
The museum features lifelike recreations of dinosaurs and sea creatures, along with interactive exhibits. Visitors can marvel at the fossils and life-sized depictions of the Dryptosarus, the first known Tyrannosaur discovered in Mantua, NJ, as well as the Hadrosaurus unearthed in Haddonfield during the 1800s, whose bones are also on display. The Monstrous Seas exhibit offers insights into the Mosasaurs, ancient creatures with two sets of jaws that once swam in the waters where the museum now stands.
