---
title: "‘Jurassic Park,’ a Little More Real"
date: 2025-03-31T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/jurassic-park-a-little-more-real"
section: Articles
---
# ‘Jurassic Park,’ a Little More Real

*March 31, 2025* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih)


> At New Dinosaur Museum Led by Paleontologist Alum, Visitors Can Dig In

*Courtesy of Edelman Fossil Park Museum of Rowan University 1920x1080 — Visitors enjoy dinosaur recreations at the new Jean & Ric Fossil Park and Museum of Rowan University, founded by Kenneth Lacovara M.A. '88 (below), the museum's executive director.*

Out on the wind-whipped steppes of Patagonia, it can take months of swinging a pickaxe and hauling buckets of rocks—subsisting on tuna and crackers and avoiding scorpions and puma—to find a fossil of note.

But now, Kenneth Lacovara M.A. ’88 is making it easier for budding paleontologists to unearth buried treasure with the March 29 opening of the [Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park and Museum of Rowan University](https://www.efm.org/) in southern New Jersey. Visitors can dig alongside experts at an old quarry (and 66-million-year-old dinosaur graveyard) and explore gleaming interactive exhibits, including more than 50 full-size models of Cretaceous-era creatures that roamed the North American East Coast.


*Kenneth Lacovara holds fossil as people dig behind him*




**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Alumni](https://today.umd.edu/topic/alumni), [Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/geology)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)