In early June, a team of Drexel researchers and students led by Ken Lacovara, associate professor of biology, made big news with a big find in suburban New Jersey: A 3-foot-wide fossil of an extinct predatory marine turtle known as Taphrosphys. It was the largest specimen of the turtle on record. Here, we offer you a look at the site where the massive turtle was unearthed—and an introduction to the team that found it.
- THE PROFESSOR: Big discoveries are nothing new for Lacovara. During a 2005 expedition to the barren plains of Patagonia, he discovered the remains of one of the largest dinosaurs on record, Paralitian stromeri. His team worked for five years to excavate the 16-ton fossil, which is currently under study in his lab in the Papadakis Intergrated Sciences Building.
- THE SITE: The turtle was unearthed in a mine pit located smack in the middle of the New Jersey suburbs. Indeed, the pit itself is located behind a big-box store shopping center, and is a short ride from always-busy Route 55. Despite its nontraditional location, Lacovara says the site offers the best exposed Cretaceous-age rocks that can be found anywhere between Spain and Montana.
- THE SOIL: Entering the dig site is almost like entering another planet. The soil is not brown here, but rather deep forest green—a color derived from a mineral called glauconite that is used in water-treatment plants and in fertilizers.
- THE WATER: The bottom of the pit is muddy, soupy and soaked through with bright orange water. High iron content is the reason why.
- THE METHOD: It’s pretty simple: To find anything at the site, you have to dig. And dig. And dig. But you have to know where to stop. The narrow layer that produces fossils is only 6 inches wide.
- THE PH.D. CANDIDATE: Elena Schroeter is a National Science Foundation Research Graduate Fellow who came to Drexel after doing her undergrad work at the University of Chicago. A native of the Windy City, Schroeter says the Sewell site offers a unique opportunity for aspiring paleontologists. “One thing about living in the Midwest is that there isn’t any Cretaceous-era rock around you,” she says. “Here, you hop in your car on campus and you’re here in 20 minutes. It kind of blows the mind.”
- THE UNDERGRAD: Nathan Shiff, a biology major, has always been passionate about dinosaurs, and after taking Lacovara’s undergraduate course in paleontology, he says he’s hoping to follow in his professor’s footsteps and someday enjoy a similar career. Oh, and there’s this: He has a tattoo of a dinosaur on his back.