A replica of Sea Rex created by sculptor Gary Staab welcomes visitors to the Monstrous Seas gallery at the new Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum in Mantua. It opened its doors to the public on March 29.
If you walk along the entryway to the new Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University, there is a huge, 65-foot deep quarry to the right where numerous fossils of sea creatures and the occasional dinosaur swept out into the ocean have been excavated.
During the Fifth Extinction – when an asteroid destroyed 75% of life on Earth 66 million years ago – Mantua was part of that ocean, said the museum’s founding executive director, Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, who has led digs over the past 20 years at what used to be a sand-mining operation.
“A remarkable, 6-foot mosasaur skull was discovered in the lake next to our museum,” he explained. “Although not a dinosaur but a marine reptile, mosasaurs roamed the oceans during the last Cretaceous period alongside their land-dwelling counterparts.”
The massive creatures were prehistoric reptiles, and in the Monstrous Seas gallery at the museum, there is a life-size replica greeting visitors, a fierce looking mosasaur known as Sea Rex that was created by world renowned sculptor Gary Staab.
“This has been a long journey,” acknowledged Lacovara, adding that the museum’s grand opening on March 29 was a sellout.
The Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum – at 66 Million Mosasaur Way in Mantua – sits on the four-acre quarry site, where more than 100,000 fossils have been unearthed. They include various species of dinosaurs, reptiles and turtles.
Its first gallery highlights dinosaurs sculpted by Staab that would have lived 100 million years ago, until the asteroid smashed into Earth. After the destruction, the largest living thing was “a shrew-like creature the size of a cat,” Lacovara said.
The second gallery, Sea Rex, contains fossils excavated on the property, including sea lizards, shrimp, clams, snails, dinosaurs, 36 species of sharks and four species of turtles. The first-ever Tyrannosaur discovered was found in Mantua at what is now Ceres Park. The final gallery on the top floor of the museum is Extinction and Hope, and it is split into two parts.
“The first half explains the Fifth Extinction, when the dinosaurs and three quarters of the species on Earth went extinct because of an asteroid crashing off the coast of Mexico,” Lacovara noted. “The Sixth Extinction is happening now because of the climate crisis and the bio-diversity crisis. We are losing our wildlife.
“The second half is about hope,” he added. “It is about taking action, doing something and exploring ways to make a difference.”
Lacovara pointed out the Act Now kiosk, where visitors are exposed to local, national and global organizations and learn how to plant flowers for pollinators, as well as the benefits of letting leaves stay on the ground through the winter.
Along with the galleries on the museum’s top floor, there is a retail gift shop and café. The bottom floor will feature a Critter Cove with live animals and there is a dinosaur-themed playground with accessible features for youngsters.
The public can also take part in quarry digs, and those of a scientific nature will also continue, according to Lacovara. He thanked the Edelmans – who founded a financial-advisory company that is now the largest of its kind in the country – for their $25-million donation to help build the museum.
“They are Rowan University alumni who care about the students, the community and the Earth,” he said of the couple.
Members of the museum’s visitor experience staff, John Guerrero and Carrie Washington, helped guide a special tour on March 25, four days before the grand opening.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Guerrero said. “I liked dinosaurs as a child, and jumped on the opportunity to be here.”
“We love to have people in the museum,” added Washington, a student in the glass program at Salem Community College. “This is a wonderful opportunity.”
“Our mission at the Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University is to be a catalyst for good through the power of understanding the past,” states the museum website at efm.org. “We deliver this through first-hand discovery of fossils and an immersive experience in the epic, real story of the dinosaurs.
“We bring awe and wonder to inspire action for a better world,” the site added. “Using the past, we put the present into perspective and give all people tools to create future actions for good. Whether it’s the pure joy of digging and exploring for exciting possibilities, or an awakening of a growing realization about our place in time and how great the gift of life is, we aim to be a remembered, loved, and inspirational agent for good.”
