Paleontologists dig up prehistoric fossils behind New Jersey shopping centerYahoo News
By Michael Walsh 9 minutes ago
A dig site in New Jersey behind a strip mall is yielding interesting finds: the fossils of animals believed killed around the same time the dinosaurs disappearedPaleontologists are excavating a fossil site that might unlock a treasure-trove of insights into the disappearance of the dinosaurs—and it's just a stone's throw from a New Jersey strip mall.
The Mantua Township quarry could be the most important prehistoric dig site in years if scientists are correct in their hypothesis that it contains animals that died when a meteorite struck the Earth 65 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs.
“In the end, if our work doesn’t find anything to disprove that, then this would be the only site in the world where we have fossils of organisms that actually died during that extinction event,” paleontologist Paul Ullmann told Yahoo News.
“And that would be really cool."
Every week, Ullmann, a graduate student at Drexel University, heads over to the site that has already turned up loads of prehistoric beasts, from mosasaurs (essentially giant Komodo dragons) to crocodile ancestors.
The animals lived in this stretch of New Jersey back when it was a shallow coastal environment and pterosaurs ruled the skies.
A dig site in New Jersey behind a strip mall is yielding interesting finds: the fossils of animals believed killed around the same time the dinosaurs disappearedUllmann is working under professor Ken Lacovara, who made international headlines after discovering the gigantic dreadnaughtus in Argentina last summer.
The dreadnaughtus, which was 85-feet-long and weighed 65 tons, is the largest land animal whose mass can be calculated accurately because its skeleton was found largely intact.
“It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex," Lacovara said at the time.
The recent dig site, however, provides a much easier commute for the professor at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.
“Dinosaur paleontology began in New Jersey,” Lacovara said. “The world’s first discovered dinosaur was in Haddonfield, N.J., and was studied at what is now the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.”
Scientists knew about the Mantua Township site for about a century but the idea that these bones go back to the end of the Cretaceous period has only been floating around for a decade.
“We are trying to test that hypothesis and see if there is any evidence that would disprove this,” Ullmann said. “Every week we are going out and finding more from the bone bed.”
Sometimes the researchers invite school children along for the adventures to help foster a love of science and discovery in the youth. Ullmann said they ultimately want to set up a visitors center where the local community can learn about scientific research while watching it in-action.
http://news.yahoo.com/paleontologist-dinosaur-new-jersey-strip-mall-extinction-165632314.html
New SMAC quizzes available.
