New Jersey Fossils

[snafu947]

Not entirely sure where to put this question, so here it goes. Any of the members search for fossils in New Jersey, specifically in Middlesex County? If so, any luck? What did you find? I'm asking as I have a contact from that county, who just might be willing to ship me a bucket or two of matrix to sift through. "Maybe". I thought of seen folks pulling up various shells and perhaps some shark teeth from NJ, but can't remember for sure.

Quick look on a geological map (provided via internet) shows the area to be Cretaceous in age. Being a couple days drive from New Jersey, I thought this might be a worthwhile endevour.

Wm.T.

[NJ Mary Ann]

Not entirely sure where to put this question, so here it goes. Any of the members search for fossils in New Jersey, specifically in Middlesex County? If so, any luck? What did you find? I'm asking as I have a contact from that county, who just might be willing to ship me a bucket or two of matrix to sift through. "Maybe". I thought of seen folks pulling up various shells and perhaps some shark teeth from NJ, but can't remember for sure.

Quick look on a geological map (provided via internet) shows the area to be Cretaceous in age. Being a couple days drive from New Jersey, I thought this might be a worthwhile endevour.

Wm.T.

Hi Wm. T.

I live and hunt in NJ. I am by no means an expert - there are several on this board who are, but I am a relative newbie, so take my information for what it is worth!

However, in my experience, most of the fossil teeth and shells I have come across have been found in riverbeds in the Monmouth County area. Now, Middlesex is just above Monmouth, so it is not far from there. Here is a link to a website about one of the popular fossil hunting locations in Monmouth county.

http://www.fossilguy.com/sites/bbrook/

check out Fossilguy's website, as he has lots of information about fossils in NJ in general.

When your friend says he will send you "matrix" what exactly does he mean? Where would he get it from? As you can see from the site, mostly we find teeth and shells in that area from sifting through the gravel, etc in the streams. Mostly you have to sift through quite a bit to find anything really good. You could get lucky with a bucket or two of streambed gravel, but the odds of finding anything really cool are low in that small a sample. But, check out the website and see what you think...and check with your friend, maybe he has access to some secret site I don't know about. Especially since he says it was from Middlesex...I have never hunted in that county, and haven't heard about any sites there.

Best of luck -

[Auspex]

Gotta' love this Forum! Where else on the net is "bucket of dirt" a good thing? All the microfossil posts have me fired up. I'm going to keep some Rubbermaid bins and a trowel in the car, and when I make a pitstop anywhere I'll scoop a binful of any promising "dirt" (and label it in case it's good).

[Auspex]

I'm fixing to collect the anthills at our site this year, so that should be fun.

Wm.T.

Let me know if you come up with any bird material; I have some egg shell fragments from anthills there.

[DD1991]

On 5/18/2008 at 8:00 PM, snafu947 said:

Not entirely sure where to put this question, so here it goes. Any of the members search for fossils in New Jersey, specifically in Middlesex County? If so, any luck? What did you find? I'm asking as I have a contact from that county, who just might be willing to ship me a bucket or two of matrix to sift through. "Maybe". I thought of seen folks pulling up various shells and perhaps some shark teeth from NJ, but can't remember for sure.

Quick look on a geological map (provided via internet) shows the area to be Cretaceous in age. Being a couple days drive from New Jersey, I thought this might be a worthwhile endevour.

Wm.T.

Miller (1962) reported a dinosaur tracksite from the Raritan Formation of Middlesex County. Case (1989) recorded the shark Cretolamna appendiculata from the Raritan Formation of Middlesex County.

 

G. R. Case. 1989. The Upper Cretaceous Shark Cretolamna appendiculata (Agassiz) in the Raritan Formation (Cenomanian) of New Jersey. THE MOSASAUR - The Journal of the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society 4:65-68

 

H. W. Miller. 1962. Appendix A: the Cretaceous reptiles of New Jersey. In H. G. Richards (ed.), The Cretaceous Fossils of New Jersey, Part II 61:193-196

[erose]

You should be able to get geo maps and other useful publications from the New Jersey State Geological Survey. It has been 15 years since I was last there but if you find the right strata you can find some cool stuff.