Drexel digs way back in time

GLOUCESTER COUNTY, N.J. - May 7, 2008 Drexel paleontologist Ken Lacovara takes his class out each Wednesday to a site in Sewell near Route 55. 65 million years ago, the site was the ocean's edge.

It was home to some unique creatures.

Lacovara pointed out to Action News fossils of the salmon's ancestor, the saber-toothed salmon.

"It has a very robust jaw, with big scary teeth in it and at the very end, it has fangs like a saber-toothed cat does," Lacovara said.

"It's kind of tedious, but it's fun to uncover something that nobody has seen for 65 million years. You're the first organism to be able to see something like this," Victoria Egerton, a graduate student, said.

Lacovara says 65 million years ago marked the end of the dinosaur era, but they are discovering evidence from other inhabitants.

Among other fossils, he and his team have unearthed two crocodile remains.