New+Jersey


 * New Jersey **


 * ** New Jersey **** : //Hadrosaurus foulkii//**


 * ** Description: //Hadrosaurus foulkii//** (or in Greek sturdy lizard) was most likely bipedal so it could run but still be able to use its forelegs to hold itself up while grazing. Like many animals Hadrosaurus was a herbivore. Its teeth suggest their diet mostly consisted of twigs and leaves. It was around 7 meters to 10 meters long, about 3 meters tall, and weighed in around 7 tons.


 * ** Picture of //Hadrosaurus foulkii// Fossil **
 * ** Time Existed: ** **//Hadrosaurus foulkii//** lived on the coast of what is now New Jersey, during the later years of the Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago. In the time for which this creature lived, the climate was warm and moist, the sea level was low, and their was a high level of volcanic activity. All around the **//Hadrosaurus foulkii//** there was a great diversity of dinosaurs and many mammals and flowering plants began to flourish; which changed the landscape.


 * ** Preservation: **The fossil was preserved in a marl pit.


 * ** Who Found the Fossil/ Why is it the state fossil?: **In the summer of 1858, William Parker Foulke, a man who enjoyed fossils as a hobby, was vacationing in Haddonfield, New Jersey, when he heard that twenty years earlier, workers had found gigantic bones in a local marl pit. Foulke spent the the late summer and fall directing a crew of hired diggers. Eventually he found the bones of an animal larger than an elephant with structural features of both a lizard and a bird. This was the **//Hadrosaurus foulkii.//** It became the state dinosaur in June, 1991.


 * ** Sources **

(2012). In //Hadrosaurus Dinosaur//. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from http://www.rareresource.com/hadrosaurus.htm

(2010). In //The Cretaceous Period//. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/mesozoic/cretaceous/ Levins, H. (2008). In //The world's first dinosaur skeleton Hadrosaurus foulkii//. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from http://www.levins.com/state.shtml