AMBER FROM THE TIME OF THE
DINOSAURS
Amber from Sayreville, New Jersey (USA)
NEW JERSEY AMBER
INSECTS & BOTANICALS
FOR SALE
AMBER FROM THE TIME OF THE
DINOSAURS
Amber from Sayreville, New Jersey (USA)
This page offers general to specific information of NJ amber and it's place in paleontology. Historically, NJ has ranked among the worlds premier amber producing sites for insects in amber. Some of the world's oldest amber comes right from little New Jersey.
Most of the insect bearing amber from New Jersey comes from the Raritan Formation. It is the oldest lithographic unit in the NJ Coastal Plains. The Raritan is dated to about 95 million years ago. This formation is mostly a continental to a marginal deltaic deposit. (The amber layers are found in the Woodbridge Member of the Raritan and was deposited under a mangrove-like channel type environment.) The Raritan's general lithology is one of light colored sands and variegated clays interbedded with, at times, lignite.
For well over a hundred years the Raritan and Magothy Formations in Central New Jersey have been commercially mined for sand and clay. This industry has, at times, aided in the discovery of many important finds. Around the turn of the century Hungarian immigrant workers digging in a Woodbridge clay pit discovered a therapod dinosaur trackway. This find still represents the only trackway east of the Mississippi from the Cretaceous. In the 1960's amateur paleontologists found an insect bearing layer of amber from the Cliffwood beach locality. One of the many specimens recovered was the now famed Sphecomyrma ant find. By the 1990's amateurs once again hit a very large and productive layer at the White Oaks sand pit in Sayreville, NJ. So many new species of insects were recovered that to this day most remain unidentified. What has come to light though is a whole suite of some of the world's oldest and previously unknown insects. But not just insects were found here. The world's oldest known mushroom, ancestral oak, and even feathers of birds were amazingly found also.
Description: The April 1995 issue of Lapidary Journal had a four page article about a new find of amber in New Jersey. The article tells in great detail the story behind the amber and of recent collectors finding 5000 pieces during a three week dig. But, they did not tell you where it is found. Here it is. Amber occurs in areas of black lignite, they are the remnants of four ancient forest floors. The amber is in the lignite and in the associated marcasite/pyrite nodules. Much of the amber fluoresces bluish-white. Most amber occurs as find BB to pea size pieces. Only rarely do they get larger.
Bring: Buckets, garden tools. Take a change of clothes because it is extremely muddy.
Directions: See map below. I prefer to park at Lakeview Drive and cross north over the railroad tracks to the collecting area. It is private property so do not upset the owners. Unfortunately, the status of mineral collecting sites change often. Inclusion in this site does not give an individual the right to trespass. If the land owner is present ALWAYS ASK PERMISSION prior to entering a collecting location. ALWAYS RESPECT THE PROPERTY OWNER, you are his guest. When in doubt, do not enter.
These fossil are from the Turonion period of the Upper Cretaceous, about 92 Million years old. The insects in amber from this site are among the oldest found in the world. Recent finds from New Jersey include the oldest mushroom, the oldest flower in amber, the oldest ants, and the oldest feather from a terrestrial bird in North America. Biting insects have also been found, making extraction of dinosaur DNA a possibility.
The amber from New Jersey tends to be found mostly as small pieces, and it is commonly cloudy or even opaque. However, most of the insects inclusions are new to science, making it very significant to researchers. They are currently under study by Dr David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History. Along with the amber is found the well preserved leaves and wood of various trees and shrubs. Although the tree responsible for the amber hasn't been positively identified, it is believed to be related to the cedar family. Myself and several other collectors found a single lignitized log with thin layers of amber within the wood. Analyzing this wood might determine the species of the amber tree.Although the preservation of some of the insects is exquisite, others are obscured by plant debris, oxidation, and air bubbles, making photography difficult. Careful preparation is usually necessary.The best site was located in central NJ a few years ago by amateur fossil collectors. Amber has been found from a number of other localities in NJ, though it has always been very rare and usually in droplets too small to preserve insects. Diggings in a sand and clay pit revealed a layer of carbonized wood fragments and leaves, known as lignite. The layers are from less than an inch to several feet thick. Amber is most abundant in these layers, though occasionally it is also present in the gray clay and sand layers above and below the lignite. Apparently the light weight amber was washed into streams and rivers, where it was deposited onto the banks along with small twigs and leaves. Areas where the lignite consists of heavier logs have almost no amber.
Unlike localities like the Dominican Republic where the amber containing layers are rock, the clay and lignite is soft and unconsolidated, so it can easily be dug using shovels and trowels. Paleontologists recently excavated the site using heavy equipment, recovering a considerable amount of amber.
SPECIMENS:
( Press Picture to see microscope photos.)
SOLD
NJ-0004 NJ-0005 NJ-0006
NJ-0007 NJ-0008 NJ-0009
Botanical: 'Barbed Twig'
NJ-0010 NJ-0011 NJ-0012
SOLD
NJ-0013 NJ-0014 NJ-0015
NJ-0016 xxx NJ-0017 NJ-0018
NJ-0019 NJ-0020 NJ-0021
SOLD SOLD
NJ-0022 NJ-0023 NJ-0024
SOLD SOLD
NJ-0025 NJ-0026 NJ-0027
NO PIC Yet
NJ-0028 NJ-0029 NJ-0030
NJ-0031 NJ-0032 NJ-0033
SOLD
NJ-0034 NJ-0035 NJ-0036
NJ-0037 NJ-0038 NJ-0039
NJ-0040 NJ-0041 NJ-0042
SOLD SOLD
NJ-0043 NJ-0044 NJ-0045
xxx
WASP-ANT Transitional
NJ-0046 NJ-0047 NJ-0048
SOLD BEETLE w/ EGGS
NJ-0049 NJ-0050 NJ-0051
SOLD
NJ-0052 NJ-0053 NJ-0054
SOLD
NJ-0055 NJ-0056 NJ-0057
SOLD
NJ-0058 NJ-0059 NJ-0060
SOLD SPIDER SOLD
NJ-0061 NJ-0062 NJ-0063
SOLD
NJ-0064 NJ-0065 NJ-0066
NJ-0067 NJ-0068 NJ-0069
NO PIC YET
NJ-0070 NJ-0071 NJ-0072
''Parasitic Wasp'' N.J.Amber Botanical "Leaf" Fragment Insect / Plant / Botanical
NJ-0073 NJ-0074 NJ-0075
NJ-0076 NJ-0077 NJ-0078
Winged Insect SOLD
NJ-0079 NJ-0080 NJ-0081
HAIR / PLANT BOTANICAL
NJ-0082 NJ-0083 NJ-0084
GALL GNAT BOTANICAL PLANT
NJ-0085 NJ-0086 NJ-0087
BOTANICAL PLANT No Pic Yet Insect Abdomon
NJ-0088 NJ-0089 NJ-0090
BOTANICAL PLANT
NJ-0091 NJ-0092 NJ-0093
NJ-0094 NJ-0095 NJ-0096
NJ-0097 NJ-0098 NJ-0099
Half Mite Legs Small Mite
NJ-0100 NJ-0101 NJ-0102
NJ-2000
to be continued...
LINKS:
PALAEOENTOMOLOGY ( Amber Insect) ARTICALS [Excellent site]
AMBER INSECT IDENTIFICATION CATALOGUE
The Amber Room Steve Kurth's New Jersey Amber Web Site. Also Mineral specimens.
ANCIENT ANT IN NEW JERSEY AMBER
ANCIENT TICK IN NEW JERSEY AMBER
A formicine in New Jersey Cretaceous amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and early evolution of the ants
Find out more at these sites for New Jersey amber finds:
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