South Jersey And Dinosaurs?

When I envision South Jersey`s long a rich history, I see the colonists working hard to build a country or the Native Americans living freely among one another. What I see is, the inhabitants of this land as homosapiens, but Dinosaurs? Now there`s a picture for you. Can you imagine these ancient creatures roaming the shores of South Jersey?

In 1838, a man by the name of John E. Hopkins made a magnificent discovery. He was digging on his farm near Haddonfield and unearthed a large black bone. He continued to dig and found more bones of the same size and appearance. He was baffled as to what kind of animal this could be. It was definitely too large to match anything he recognized. He did not know what to do with the find. He stored the old bones and as word spread about the large bones people would visit the Hopkins farm to get a peek at them. Hopkins was so unsure of what he had that he would even give people pieces of the bones as souvenirs. It wasn`t until twenty years later that a gentleman from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, W. Parker Foulke, heard about Hopkins`s finding while vacationing in Haddonfield. Can you imagine Foulke`s reaction to this news? It was like a miner hearing about a gold find! Hopkins gave Foulke permission to dig for more bones, which yielded hundreds of more fossils. It was Foulke`s “gold mine”. Foulke was assisted by Joseph Leidy, Director of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Each day they unearthed more specimens and each day their excitement rose. When they had gathered up all that they thought could be found the two men took the specimens back to Philadelphia and Leidy put them together. What he found was a creature that measured twelve-feet high and thirty-feet long. It was a Dinosauria or “Terrible Lizard”. Leidy named it Hadrosaurus foulkii, after the town and discoverer. They believe that the creature was a plant eater and probably consumed about 200 pounds of vegetation a day.

This discovery was the first complete skeleton of a dinosaur in the United States. It also dispelled the theory that all Dinosaurs walked on all fours. This Hadrosaurus had hind limbs that were much larger than the front. When it was assembled, the creature stood on its hind legs. A replica of the Hadrosaurus is still displayed at the Academy of Natural Science.

Ah yes, South Jersey is rich in history and the soil is rich in mysteries. The next time you start digging don`t be surprised at what you might find.

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Author: Vickie Van Antwerp