x
  1. Home
  2.  Entertainment

These kids are digging it

| 26 Jun 2012 | 07:42
    Dr. Jim Brown of South Amboy, assistant education director and resident paleontologist at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg lends a hand as Wesley, 6, left, and Nathaniel, 10, both of Sparta, sift for fossils Saturday morning. Photo by John Church
    Dr. Jim Brown of South Amboy, assistant education director and resident paleontologist at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg lends a hand as Wesley, 6, left, and Nathaniel, 10, both of Sparta, sift for fossils Saturday morning. Photo by John Church
    Teagan Healy, 7, of Highland Lakes examines a potential fossil.
    Teagan Healy, 7, of Highland Lakes examines a potential fossil.

Fossils in New Jersey New Jersey is rich in fossils, making it a good place to fossil hunt. “The first dinosaur found in North America, in 1859, was found in Haddonfield, N.J.,” said Jim Brown of South Amboy, assistant education director and resident paleontologist at the museum, to a group of fossil hunters.

New Jersey even has a state dinosaur, hadrosaurus foulkii.

Brown said the specimen was excavated by William Foulke and identified by Dr. Joseph Leidy of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences.

“The northern part of the state has Paleozoic fossils toward the Highlands, near the Delaware River and in Sussex County,” said Brown. "In the southern part of the state, we have younger fossils in sediments. New Jersey has a fairly decent fossil collection, or an ability to find and collect fossils.”

Wesley and Nathaniel Malmount of Sparta were busy digging as their grandfather, Ed Herbst of Morristown watched from the shade. Each participant could keep six fossils and the boys quickly found some prized specimens. “This is a belated father’s day gift for me,” said Herbst.

Find out more sterlinghillminingmuseum.org