Masp Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Does anyone know of any good places in New Jersey where you can legally look for, dig, and take dinosaur fossils/footprints? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankh8147 Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Dinosaur material can be tough to come by but it is here. I have a good amount of dinosaur bone and a few teeth which have all come from the Big Brook area on Monmouth County but that's the result of years of digging. Aside from being pretty rare, dinosaur material can also be tough to identify, as it is usually scrappy material from the stream so if you want to find dinosaur stuff here, research old posts so you know what you are looking for 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masp Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 Appreciate the feedback. I've heard of Big Brook. I will be definitely checking that out. There are two locations I heard of also where they were quarries: one of which is open to the public or something once a year in south jersey ( not even sure if that's still the case) , and one in Roseland nj. Both are closed off to the public as far as I'm concerned.. so I'm just trying to get a feel of other good places to look on my own time. In any case, thank you. Would also appreciate if anyone could suggest places near Jersey worth visiting for finding dinosaur fossils as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankh8147 Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 There was a site in Roseland with tracks but that is closed to the public I believe. As per South Jersey, all I could think of is possibly the site which is now owned by Rowan University (known as inversand) but most of the fossils there are marine. As per dinosaur bone and teeth, Monmouth County is the only place I know which still produces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masp Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 Lol fun fact. I live minutes away from the place in roseland. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out that it's closed to the public.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjkibz Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 On 6/23/2017 at 2:21 PM, Masp said: Appreciate the feedback. I've heard of Big Brook. I will be definitely checking that out. There are two locations I heard of also where they were quarries: one of which is open to the public or something once a year in south jersey ( not even sure if that's still the case) , and one in Roseland nj. Both are closed off to the public as far as I'm concerned.. so I'm just trying to get a feel of other good places to look on my own time. In any case, thank you. Would also appreciate if anyone could suggest places near Jersey worth visiting for finding dinosaur fossils as well. I can help a bit with the Rowan (ex-Inversand) site. The Fossil Park does do an annual community dig day each fall, but that is a massive event each year that books within hours of opening. Other than that, there are smaller events here and there around the year, and the quarry is being excavated for research (part of it at a given time). They do look for volunteers, but there is a new preregistration for on-site training this year which has been booked up, and they ask that you come to at least two days of digging. Overall, for Big-Brook-style fossil hunting, I would not recommend the quarries -- there tend to be a number of restrictions around them. If you're looking at Big Brook, I would also recommend Ramenessin Creek in (i believe, correct me if I'm wrong) Marlboro. It isn't terribly far (i think it was about 30 minutes, give or take about 10), and my historical geology class went there as part of a three-stop day trip (which included Big Brook and Shark River), and in a short stop I found a number of burrow linings, a shark vertebra and a partial arrowhead. They do generally restrict the number of fossils you can take at a lot of these sites, but you'll probably find enough that you will still have some nice stuff, especially if you're out for a whole day. "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Ramennessin is in Holmdel. But that is only a hop and skip from Marlboro. Dino material does show up in those streams. I have a small Hadrosaur tooth and a fair amount of unidentifiable bone. I have seen Ralph Johnson's Hadrosaur leg bone that came out of one of those creeks. It is fairly big and quite obviously a dino's leg bone. Pretty dang cool! Persistance can pay off and those brooks continue to produce new and better material. Trackways I can't tell you about other than to suggest you collect with plaster or RTV not a rock saw. Collecting sites have been shut down after gung ho collectors showed up with power tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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