Christmas Press Release

A press release from my Museum just before Christmas.  Dave Parris is my boss.

STATE MUSEUM RECEIVES HOLIDAY GIFT FROM FOSSIL COLLECTOR

TRENTON, NJ - Reindeer didn’t arrive in New Jersey with Santa Claus; they were here thousands of years ago! Andrew Dillman of Hamilton Township, Mercer County has proof, an Ice Age fossil that he found in Monmouth County. It is an antler of a caribou, the wild species of deer from which reindeer were domesticated, and was probably living in what is now New Jersey at least ten thousand years ago.

Dillman, who works for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, knew he had found something important. He showed his specimen to New Jersey State Museum Curator David Parris back in 1983. Parris agreed that it was a significant find and described it in a scientific paper. Dillman carefully preserved his prized fossil and protected it from damage during the ensuing years.

In November, Dillman attended one of the State Museum’s Sunday Science lectures and visited with Parris and other scientists who study the Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch). He also viewed similar records of mammals of that age, currently on view in the exhibition called Rising Tide: Climate Change and New Jersey. Following the visit, Dillman decided to donate the fossil to the State Museum, so that it would become yet another documented piece of evidence in the Museum’s Ice Age collections.

“The fact that the specimen represents an ancestor of the reindeer makes the timing of this gift especially exciting,” said Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells. “I want to thank Andrew Dillman for his generosity in contributing to the wonderful educational offerings of the State Museum.”

The state’s museum curator David Parris added that nearly a century ago, paleontologist Oliver Perry Hay highlighted that: “In the consideration of the problems of Pleistocene geology and paleontology, New Jersey is one of the most important states.”

On Tuesday, Dillman delivered the specimen to Parris, and the fossil will soon be added to the exhibition Rising Tide: Climate Change and New Jersey. 


Links to some of the stories that came out about this: http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/new-jersey-state-museum-receives-ice-age-fossil-gift

http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1262069111165530.xml&coll=5