Tany, a 200-million-year-old fossil, is now at the State Museum.
Steven and Trini Stelz, who have been collecting fossils for years, stand by some in their Hunterdon County home.
Posted on 04/18/2010 2:47:00 PM PDT by Coleus
For millions of years, Tany laid buried under layers of rock in what is now Hudson County. She was unearthed in 1979 by a trio of amateur fossil hunters in an abandoned quarry: a rare, complete skeleton of a primitive reptile — one that swam through waterways in the northeast as dinosaurs began to roam the planet.
But in the decades since her discovery, Tany has been stored out of state, modestly displayed in the lobby of a New York research laboratory. Now, she’s back home. The fossil’s founders, Steven and Trini Stelz and James Leonard, recently donated the 200-million-year-old specimen to the State Museum in Trenton. The tanytrachelos ahynis fossil — or Tany, as it’s nicknamed — is already on display.
“I thought it should be in New Jersey,” Steven Stelz said. “I thought it wasn’t getting enough exposure.” But in Trenton, Tany is being praised as a gem of the museum’s collection. “We concentrate on New Jersey treasures,” said David Parris, the museum’s curator of natural history. “And this is certainly one of the greatest to come to us.”
Encapsulated in slab of gray rock, the fossil is likely a female specimen, about a foot long, with a complete skeletal frame — something scientists say is extremely rare. All 128 of the reptile’s bones, including its skull, are intact. “To find any skeleton down to the last tail vertebrae is unheard of,” Parris said. “We think it’s the best specimen of this species ever found.”
In life, the tanytrachelos — which means “long neck” in Greek — looked like a lizard and lived in the rift-valley-like lakes in eastern North America. It fed off insects and small aquatic life.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Tany, a 200-million-year-old fossil, is now at the State Museum.
Steven and Trini Stelz, who have been collecting fossils for years, stand by some in their Hunterdon County home.
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They found Lautenberg?
)
Did Senator Lautenberg have any comments?
Thanks for posting these very interesting articles on the ancient history of the Tri-State area.
Hmmm. I thought all fossil hunters and treasure hunters were in it for profits and that the best things would never be seen by the public.
Looks like it might be related to crocadilians.
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Thanks Coleus. |
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He left Washington and made an appearance in NJ? Shocking.
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