After a long wait because of construction delays, the $73 million Edelman Fossil Park & Museum has announced its opening date and has started selling tickets.
The 44,000-square-foot facility in Mantua will open to the public on March 29, allowing visitors to take a step back in time.
"Right here in South Jersey, we've preserved millions of years of history in stunning detail, with each fossil telling its own unique story," said Kenneth Lacovara, founding executive director of the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum. "We want visitors to feel like they're stepping into the world of dinosaurs and walk away feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to make a difference for the future."
The Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University will feature a fossil dig experience, free-roam virtual reality adventure, personalized interactive encounters, and a dinosaur-themed playground.
Officials pushed back a planned summer opening in 2024 and then hoped to open in the fall.
"We're disappointed that it's taking longer than we had anticipated to finish the project," Ric Edelman, the benefactor of the exhibit, told NJ Advance Media last year. "But we are very much looking forward to the grand opening."
Rowan University broke ground on the huge dinosaur fossil park and museum in 2021 on the site of a prehistoric treasure trove of relics just a few miles from its campus in Glassboro. Edelman and his wife Jean, Rowan alumni, contributed more than $25 million toward the project's cost.
The park is on the site of a former industrial sand pit.
Just a few hundred square yards of the 65-acre site have been fully excavated but have still yielded more than 50,000 cataloged marine and terrestrial fossils, from reptilian mosasaurs to sea turtles, sharks, bony fish, coral and clams, the university said.
"You will not only be able to put your hands in the dirt and walk the 60-plus acres of the park, you'll also be able to experience what the world was like 66 million years ago and the incredible diversity of life that existed on this planet to help you connect with the past in a very real, physical endeavor," Edelman told NJ Advance Media.
"This will not only ground you in today's world," he added, "it'll help remind you of where we came from and the threats that we face going forward."
Researchers have already turned up a fossil of the largest prehistoric crocodile ever found, Rowan said. Parts of New Jersey were once underwater on prehistoric Earth, and the fossils on site are buried in marl sand as opposed to being encased in rock like researchers find in other parts of the country.
Among the museum's planned exhibits are a recreated Dryptosaurus, the first discovered tyrannosaur, which was found a mile from the fossil park site in 1866, and a 53-foot mosasaur, like one discovered at the fossil park site.
In the depths of the quarry, more than 40 feet below the park, more than 100,000 fossils have been unearthed. These discoveries, representing more than 100 species including mosasaurs, marine crocodiles, sea turtles, and sharks, underscore the site's significance, according to the university.
Tickets start at $29 for adults and $24 for children ages 3-12. Admission is free for kids aged 2 and under, and additional benefits are available for members.