Rowan Fossil Quarry

In a thin, six-inch bone bed on the site of a former marl pit, Dr. Kenneth Lacovara is leading research at the Rowan University Fossil Quarry in Mantua Township, N.J. The quarry contains thousands of fossils and provides researchers with the best window, east of the Mississippi, into the Cretaceous Period—the heyday of the dinosaurs. Fossils found at the site, include, among others, marine snails, brachiopods, bryozoan colonies, shark teeth, boney fish, sea turtles, marine crocodiles and mosasaurus. Lacovara’s team is analyzing the fossils, the sediments and the geochemistry of the site to gain a clearer picture of the period when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.