A Massive Dinosaur Fossil Museum Is Coming to NJ in March

There's a treasure trove of fossils at the site where the museum will be.

Lakeside view of the coming Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum/photo credit: ROWAN UNVERSITY

A new dinosaur fossil park museum is coming to NJ and there’s a treasure trove of ancient relics there just waiting to be discovered.

Rowan University updated its information – and you will be able to explore South Jersey’s ancient past, all with an eye toward a more sustainable future, starting March 2025.

COURTESY EDELMAN FOSSIL PARK MUSEUM

The $73 million, 44,000-square-foot Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum in Mantua Twp. is an exciting endeavor that will shed light on the dinosaur world for visitors. The museum will be set into the 65-acre Edelman Fossil Park, perched above a former marl quarry where 66-million-year-old marine and terrestrial fossils exist.

COURTESY EDELMAN FOSSIL PARK MUSEUM

Kids and adults will marvel at “skeletal reconstructions of creatures that existed right here, 66 million years ago.”

Quarry view of the coming Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum/Photo credit: ROWAN UNIVERSITY

The Hall of Cretaceous Seas will feature recreations that will enable visitors to experience the demise of the dinosaurs. Visitors will enter land and sea galleries of the Late Cretaceous worlds and see a recreated Dryptosaurus, the first discovered tyrannosaur, which was found just a mile from the Fossil Park site in 1866, and a 53-foot mosasaur, like one discovered at the site.

The Discovery Forest will feature hands-on learning stations and Critter Cove will have sea and land animals with genetic connections to the site during the Late Cretaceous era. There will also be a Fossil Research Workshop, a virtual reality chamber, café, museum store, paleo-themed playground and nature trails.

ROWAN UNIVERSITY

The museum will also be eco-friendly, and is set to become New Jersey’s largest public net-zero building, meaning 100% of the energy used will come from renewable on-site sources and/or green energy through New Jersey’s power grid. The surrounding grounds will restore plant and animal habitat and other landscape features making this one sustainable destination.

When completed, you will actually be able to dig for fossils and possibly even keep some, though some important artifacts will be kept on site for further research.

  • Jennifer Amato contributed to this story.

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