Some dino-mite facts about New Jersey's dinosaur history

Did you know that thousands or even millions of years ago, a prehistoric creature may have been living exactly where you are today?

For those in Sussex, Passaic or Morris counties, this creature may have been an elephant-like animal called a mastodon, stomping up your road during the Cenozoic Period, between 2.6 million and 12,000 years ago.

If you are in Bergen or Essex counties, there may have been a dinosaur known as a grallator leaving its footprints in your yard during the Mesozoic Period, between 250 million and 65 million years ago.

These are just two of the many different prehistoric creatures that are known to have inhabited modern-day New Jersey, according to a map from the Department of Environmental Protection which details time periods, evolutionary ages, rock types and species types all around New Jersey.

NJ fossil finds

New Jersey was recently ranked by USA TODAY as the 13th state in terms of most dinosaur discoveries.

According to the article, 139 fossils have been found in New Jersey. Some 26 of those fossils are from the Norian age of the Triassic Period, 227 to 209 million years ago.

According to the DEP, fossils are most abundant in southern New Jersey and northwestern New Jersey. Most of the fossils found in the state were uncovered during the construction of roads and buildings, in creek beds, and during quarrying.

New Jersey was actually home to the first nearly intact dinosaur skeleton ever found in North America, the Hadrosaurus Foulkii, which is the official New Jersey state fossil.

According to the Rutgers University Geology Museum, the Hadrosaurus was found in the late 1830s by a farmer named John Estaugh Hopkins while he was digging in Haddonfield and started to uncover large bones. Twenty years later, Hopkins showed the bones to his friend William Parker Foulke who decided to begin an excavation of the area with Dr. Joseph Leidy.

In 1858 they retrieved almost an entire skeleton except for the skull. According to Ria Sarker of the Rutgers Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, this discovery "marked a significant moment in the field of vertebrate paleontology in the late 1800s."

A few years later in 1866, the remains of the predatory Dryptosaurus were found nearby, another significant find in the world of paleontology. According to an article from Smithsonian Magazine, these two skeletons were the most completely known dinosaurs at the time and also confirmed to scientists that these types of dinosaurs walked around on two legs, leading them to completely reconsider what dinosaurs may have looked like and how they may have evolved.

You can visit the original Hadrosaurus, which is mounted at Drexel University's Academy of Natural Sciences' Dinosaur Hall in Philadelphia.

According to the BBC, the Dryptosaurus is not currently on display.

Additionally, the most commonly found fossils in New Jersey are grallator three-toed footprints and from Hadrosaurids, also known as duck-billed dinosaurs.

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Dinosaur spots around New Jersey

If you want to see dinosaurs today, there are plenty of opportunities around New Jersey.

You can visit the area where the Hadrosaurus was found in Haddonfield, where a large statue of the dinosaur stands.

The Rutgers University Geology Museum in New Brunswick is a little closer to home and has a display of our state dinosaur that you can visit as well as many other New Jersey artifacts including other dinosaur fossils and rare New Jersey minerals.

Unfortunately, most of the known fossil beds in New Jersey are closed to the public but you can visit the Poricy Park Conservancy in Middletown, which houses the Poricy Brook Fossil Beds. These creek beds contain fossils from the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, 145 to 65 million years ago. If you are lucky enough to find some you are allowed to take them home, but the park asks that you keep it to a five fossil maximum.

Big Brook Preserve in Monmouth County is a similar spot where you can go to dig for fossils, but adhere to the rules that are posted around the park.

You can also dig for fossils at the Liberty Science Center's Dino Dig Adventure, a 1,750-square-foot landscape where guests can practice their paleontology skills in three different sand pits.

Another significant spot is the Riker Hills Fossil Site, also known as the Walter Kidds Dinosaur Park in Roseland, one of the most significant fossil deposits in the United States. This site is part of the Riker Hills complex, which also consists of the Riker Hill Art Park and Becker Park. Unfortunately, the dinosaur park is not currently open to the public.

Finally, although it is closed for the season, keep an eye out for opening dates of Field Station: Dinosaurs in Leonia, where you can explore trails of life-size dinosaurs and learn the story and science behind each one.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New Jersey has a rich prehistoric history of dinosaurs. See fun facts