Inversand trip, Sept 2007

I attended a trip to Inversand that was a pay for a slot gig with the Friends of the New Jersey State Museum (NJSM). The weather was poor, remnants of a tropical storm were going up the coast and the rain and cold wind was a poor start to the day. The sun broken out around noon but it was a struggle to make it that long.

Learning from pervious trips to this site I walked the area first and found a nice but worn 2-inch mako, probably from the Hornerstown formation. Here, today though I’m hoping for associated reptile remains.

I dug near a spot I had good luck with years ago but did not have the same spectacular results. Some turtle shell fragments and after about 4 hours 2 vertebra. They were not crocodile but still had a reptilian ball and socket look. I sent off an email and the NJSM paleontologist (who is just awesome) thinks they maybe from a mosasaur (an first for me).

So, not what I was looking for (no associate croc verts, no dinosaur teeth) but I did find my biggest sharks tooth yet from the site and my first mosasaur vertebras so I cool day anyway.