Last June, 6-year-old Arya Valcarcel and her 12-year-old brother, Manuel, crouched shoulder to shoulder, sifting through mud. Suddenly, Arya spotted what looked like a pointy rock. But it wasn’t a rock at all. It was a 65-million-year-old shark tooth!
The siblings were at the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park at Rowan University. That’s a 65-acre pit in New Jersey where people can help scientists hunt for fossils. The area is full of the remains of prehistoric animals, from armored crocodiles to lizards as long as school buses. Those creatures lived during the Cretaceous period, the heyday of the dinosaurs (see From Dinosaurs to Today).
Arya Valcarcel and her brother Manuel sat together sifting through mud last June. Arya is 6. Manuel is 12. Suddenly, Arya spotted something. It looked like a pointy rock. But it wasn’t a rock at all. It was a 65-million-year-old shark tooth!
The pair were at Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park. It’s part of Rowan University in New Jersey. The park is a 65-acre pit. People can visit to help scientists hunt for fossils. The area is full of the remains of ancient animals. That includes armored crocodiles. There are lizards as long as school buses too. Those creatures lived during the Cretaceous period. That was a time when many dinosaurs lived (see From Dinosaurs to Today).