Monthly Meetings

January Speaker 

Our January DVPS Meeting will be held Sunday, January 11th at 3 PM via Google Meet only.  Information to access the Google Meet link for this meeting will be provided by email a day or two in advance.  

Our Speaker will be Dr. Dana Ehret.  Dr. Ehret is the Curator of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum. He was born and raised in Monmouth County and started collecting fossil shark teeth at a young age. Dana attended Stockton University (then college) where he earned a B.S. degree in Marine Biology and studied fossil turtles with Dr. Roger Wood. He attended the University of Florida for graduate school, earning an M.S. in Geological Sciences studying Badlands fossil tortoises with Dr. Bruce MacFadden and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology studying fossil lamniform sharks including white sharks and Otodus megalodon also with Dr. MacFadden. Dana was Curator of Paleontology at the University of Alabama for five years before moving back to New Jersey. He was Assistant Curator of Natural History for five years before taking over as Curator from Dave Parris three years ago. He is also an adjunct professor at Monmouth University. Dana has been featured on Discovery Channel's "Shark Week", the Smithsonian Channel and recently filmed a program for the television series 'Prehistory of Quebec' airing in 2026.

The Ellisdale Fossil Site was discovered in the 1980s along Crosswicks Creek in Monmouth County, New Jersey and occurs within the basal portion of the Campanian Marshalltown Formation. To date, it has produced the largest and most diverse vertebrate fauna of non-marine species from the Late Cretaceous of Appalachia. Non-marine taxa identified include amphibians (frogs and salamanders), non-marine lizards, turtles, dinosaurs and mammals. In addition, marine species including chondrichthyans, osteichthyans, turtles, crocodiles, and mosasaurs are known, making the Ellisdale Fossil Site one of the most complete glimpses into the biodiversity of the subcontinent of Appalachia. Geologic data suggests that the Ellisdale Fossil Site may represent fossils and sediments from both a tidal freshwater estuarine or fluvio-deltaic environment and a marine, continental shelf environment. The original excavations at the Ellisdale Fossil Site occurred during the mid-1980s through 1990s. After a 25-year hiatus, active collecting and research of the Ellisdale Site resumed in 2018 yielding many new specimens in a previously uncollected region. This presentation will cover the background of the site as well as some of the new research being done in conjunction with the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. and the Monmouth County Park System.

His talk is titled, “New Jersey's Ellisdale Fossil Site: A Glimpse at Appalachia During The Late Cretaceous”.

 This website is maintained by Chris Storck.

All information or images disclosed herein are copyright © of the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society,

or are copyright © of their respective owners.