The day the dinosaurs died

August 28, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In a former fertilizer quarry tucked behind a Lowe’s and a Chick-fil-A in southern New Jersey, paleontologist Ken Lacovara is uncovering the most detailed record ever found of the day the dinosaurs died. The site, now the Edelman Fossil Park and Museum, contains over 100,000 fossils from more than 100 different species, all interbedded with the actual fallout from the asteroid impact that ended the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago. Lacovara initially dismissed the quarry as “a muddy hellhole” when he first visited in 2003, using it only to give his students field experience. But as he dug deeper, he realized the site preserved something unique: a complete collapsed ecosystem from the exact moment of the fifth mass extinction.

The hour the dinosaurs died

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1 The Day the Dinosaurs Died — TED Radio Hour
2 Timestamped Outline
3 (01:04) **Introduction: The New Jersey Fossil Quarry** - Host Manoush Zomorodi visits the Edelman Fossil Park in southern New Jersey, a former fertilizer quarry that holds an extraordinary fossil record.
4 (04:26) **How the Quarry Became a Public Museum** - Ken explains the unlikely journey from commercial mine to world-class public fossil park.
5 (06:25) **Walking Through Deep Time** - As they descend into the quarry, each step represents roughly 400,000 years of geological history.
6 (08:27) **The Asteroid Impact: Minute by Minute** - Ken reconstructs the catastrophic day 66 million years ago when an asteroid struck off the Yucatan Peninsula.
7 (10:05) **The Only Complete Death Assemblage** - New Jersey's quarry preserves a unique snapshot of the extinction event that no other site in the world matches.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

What happened in the days, even hours, after an asteroid set off the fifth extinction? A New Jersey quarry, and site of a new museum founded by paleontologist Ken Lacovara, sheds light on the mystery.

Original broadcast date: August 16, 2024

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