By Gary Vecchiarelli –

New Jersey has always been known for its famous Hadrosaurus foulkii, the world’s first dinosaur skeleton and state dinosaur, but what about a dinosaur called Dryptosaurus? Believe it or not, there once was a nasty dinosaur that prowled the areas where we now live, drive and pay tolls!

Dryptosaurus (meaning “tearing lizard”) was a genus of primitive tyrannosaur that lived in Eastern North America during the end of the Late Cretaceous period. He was 6.5 m long, 1.8 m high at the hips, and weighed about 1.2 tons. It had relatively long arms with three fingers. Each of these fingers were tipped by a talon-like 8 inch claw!

Dryptosaurus once roamed the backyards of the great Garden State and at a time when dinosaurs flourished. It was a swift alert animal that very well hunted our famed Hadrosaurus and other local species. In a world of fast moving technology and change, it is easy to forget that our land was once ruled by dinosaurs.

In 1866, an incomplete skeleton of Dryptosaurus was found in Barnsboro, New Jersey, by workers in a quarry. Paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897), who described the remains, named the creature “Laelaps” (“stormwind,” after the dog in Greek mythology that never failed to catch what it was hunting). Laelaps became one of the first dinosaurs described from North America.

It was later discovered that the name Laelaps had already been given to a species of insect, and Cope’s rival paleontologist, Othenial Charles Marsh, changed the name in 1877 to Dryptosaurus.

When it comes to dinosaurs, most New Jersey residents would never think of a T-Rex type dino prowling where we now work, play and go about our lives. New Jersey looked very different during the Cretaceous. This was last of three time periods of the Mesozoic, a time that dinosaurs ruled the local landscape.

When I think of Drypto roaming around, I imagine a cross between a Velociraptor and a T-Rex! I am sure I don’t need to tell you the deadly combination these two dinos conjur up in our minds. The discovery of Dryptosaurus contributed a lot to in the field of paleontology and how we view dinosaurs today. To learn more, please visit my website at www.njdino.com.