When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey »

When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey provides a succinct and readable history of the geology and paleontology of New Jersey from the time the region was covered by Cambrian seas 543 million years ago to the Pleistocene Ice Age only 10 to 15,000 years ago. William Gallagher tells the stories of professional and amateur fossil hunters, their discoveries, and their impact on the history of paleontological thought. He points out places in New Jersey and nearby where specimens characteristic of each era can be found. He shows how fossil evidence discovered in the state is helping paleontologists reconstruct the ecological interactions and behavior of dinosaurs, and discusses such continuing scientific controversies as the reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs. From tracking dinosaur footprints across the Newark basin, to digging for the last dinosaurs in the greensands of South Jersey, this book is the ideal introduction to the Garden State's fossils and prehistory.

Publishers Weekly

When thinking about dinosaurs in America, most readers will think of the Southwest, of Dinosaur National Monument and other arid Western preserves. But Gallagher, the registrar of natural history at the New Jersey State Museum, disputes that with his concise yet thorough account of New Jersey's rich, unrecognized history of dinosaur paleontology. He begins 543 million years ago, then delves into each era, charts the changes in geology and explains their impact on natural history. In 1787, some 50 years before the term dinosaur was coined, Benjamin Franklin inspected the first dinosaur bone found in Americathat of the left foot of a duckbill discovered in Woodbury, N.J. In 1858, researchers William Foulke and Joseph Leidy reported on the first partial skeleton of a dinosaur found in the world, in Haddonfield, which gave researchers their earliest clear idea of dinosaur anatomy and became an important element in the debates over evolution. Gallagher is particularly informative on amber deposits from the Mesozoic era, which have yielded the oldest known fossil bees, some of the oldest known ants and a variety of complete insects and partial bird feathers. For teachers and students of natural history, or even those just interested in New Jerseyana or dinosaur lore, Gallagher's book is a fascinating, accessible reminder that dinosaurs really did roam the eartheven Newark. (Apr.)