Monmouth is greatest NJ county for fossils, pest management firm says – New Jersey 101.5 FM

By rating the variety of dig websites, variety of specimen varieties, and common artifact age, Excel Pest Providers has named Monmouth County the highest place in New Jersey to search out fossils.

A examine by the corporate, which operates in New Jersey and Florida, published last month put Monmouth far out in entrance within the first two classes — 88 dig websites, whereas Gloucester County ranked second with 18, and 284 fossil varieties, with Morris coming in second at 88.

Monmouth County was third by way of common age of fossils at 57,572,006 years, behind Gloucester (63,276,016) and Burlington (58,241,176).

Excel stated its examine included fossils of all species, from dinosaurs right down to sea creatures and bugs.

The information additionally present the almost definitely interval of fossils to be present in every county that was ranked. For example, “mosasaurs,” marine reptiles that grew so long as 50 toes, are the predominant kind in Monmouth County. They lived within the Cretaceous-Paleocene interval, from 135 to 66 million years in the past, in line with the examine.

Sussex and Warren counties are residence to among the oldest fossils, trilobites, that are an extinct forerunner of arthropods that date again to the Cambrian interval of 521 million years in the past, Excel stated.

There are specimens that also resemble animals that may be seen in current day, because the examine discovered fossils of echinoderms corresponding to starfish and sea urchins in Ocean County.

Solely two counties have been off the board utterly, Cape Might and Union.

Patrick Lavery is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You possibly can attain him at [email protected]

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