Sayreville Clay Mine Amber

A piece of fossil amber embedded in a pyrite nodule found at Sayre and Fisher clay mine Sayreville, NJ. Quantities of Cretaceous era fossil amber have been found at the Sayreville site, some containing insect and plant inclusions. The American Museum of Natural History in NYC has a collection of amber from this site. Amber was and still is to a lesser extent found in lignite (carbonized wood) concentrations in a generally sterile compacted gray clay. Though dinosaur remains have not been found at the site the longest series of dinosaur tracts found in New Jersey were uncovered by workers during the mid 1930s.