In 2007, paleontologist Ken Lacovara suspected he'd made a huge discovery in an unexpected spot. Tucked behind a Lowe's hardware store in a strip mall in New Jersey he found one of the most intact fossil beds from 66 million years ago. Recently a new museum opened at the dig site, where visitors can learn more about the day an asteroid struck the earth, killing the dinosaurs, and even go hunting for their own fossils. Listen to the full episode on the TED Radio Hour podcast and see photos from the quarry.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and you're listening to the Sunday Story from Up First, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. About 66 million years ago, something huge happened on our planet. It's known as the fifth mass extinction event, and it wiped out some 50% of plants and animals on Earth. You probably know the basics of the story, an asteroid struck and killed off all the dinosaurs.
But recently, scientists have been uncovering more details about what really happened at that pivotal moment in history. Mantua, New Jersey, is the site of a new paleontology museum and fossil dig site where scientists are discovering exciting new clues about what happened in the days and even hours after the asteroid hit.
The Edelman Fossil Park and Museum of Rowan University opened this spring to the public, and now anyone who visits has the chance to go down into the quarry to find fossils themselves. When we come back, we go to the fossil site and find out what happened on that fateful day. Stay with us.
We're back with The Sunday Story, and I'm here with Manoush Zomorodi, host of the TED Radio Hour, to talk about her reporting from the Edelman Fossil Park and what it can teach us. Manoush, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks, Aisha.
Glad to be here.
So you visited the dig site and the museum before it was open to the public. You got a little sneak preview and you got a tour from Ken Lacovara, the renowned paleontologist who founded the museum. What was that like?
It was a big surprise, Aisha, because this site is tucked behind a strip mall. It is New Jersey after all. So there's like a Lowe's hardware store and a Chick-fil-A and you drive around the bend behind the mall and there's this beautiful museum with a huge pit in front of it. And Ken took me down into the pit and you're there and you're like, well, there's just a pile of dirt down here, right?
But actually, it is full of tiny fossils, mostly of sponges and clams and snails and oysters, but also bone fragments of turtles, sharks, mosasaurs, and even, yes, an occasional dinosaur.
Wow. I mean, that's incredible because anybody would want to find a little dinosaur piece, right? So how did Ken first discover this site in New Jersey?
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