Annual Conference
Dive Into Discovery
GANJ XLII 2026
Reconstructing the Last Days (and Millions of Years) of the Age of Reptiles in the North Atlantic Coastal Plain
The New Jersey Geological Association’s Annual Conference, titled Reconstructing the Last Days (and Millions of Years) of the Age of Reptiles in the North Atlantic Coastal Plain, will take place at the Edelman Fossil Park of Rowan University in Mantua, New Jersey.
The conference will be centered around the state-specific wonders housed at the Edelman Fossil Park of Rowan University. Edelman Fossil Park is renowned for its robust diversity of exhibits and high-quality specimens, and speakers will explore the historical and scientific significance of these fossils and other specimens from the larger Late Cretaceous North Atlantic Coastal Plain.
Note: Registration for our Annual Conference automatically grants membership for the year.
Agenda
Speaker Bios
Keynote speaker; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Paleontology, Rider University of New Jersey
William Gallagher
Dr. Gallagher has authored over 70 scientific papers, articles, and abstracts, as well as the popular book, When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey.
His research interests include the paleoecological dynamics of mass extinction events, especially the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/P) Boundary mass extinction event.
William Gallagher, PhD is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Rider University and a founding member of the Delaware Valley Paleont0logical Society (DVPS).
Until his retirement in 2008, Dr. Gallagher served as the Assistant Curator of Natural History, Collections and Exhibits, Natural History Bureau, New Jersey State Museum. He also was a GEMS Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2008-2009 academic year, a Rider University Science and Technology Advanced Research Institute (STARI) Fellow from 2009 until 2011, and a full-time Visiting Assistant Professor from 2011 until 2014.
Assistant Curator, Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University; Assistant Professor, Rowan University
Zachary Boles
Dr. Boles is a vertebrate paleontologist who conducts fieldwork at the Edelman Fossil Park. His research primarily focuses on understanding the taphonomy of this site (i.e., how the bonebed formed and what ecological inferences can we make). He is also interested in paleohistology; the study of bone microstructure in order to gain insight into the growth and ecology of various organisms. Dr. Boles also runs volunteer digs at the Edelman Fossil Park and the fossil preparation lab on campus.
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
KENNETH MILLER
Kenneth G. Miller is a Board of Governors Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University. He earned an A.B. from Rutgers College in 1978 and a Ph.D. from the MIT–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography in 1982. A veteran of nine scientific cruises, he has integrated offshore seismic and drilling programs with onshore drilling. From 1993 to 2016, he served as Chief Scientist of the New Jersey Coastal Plain Drilling Project (Ocean Drilling Program Legs 150X and 174AX), which continuously cored sixteen sites. He has also served on numerous ocean and continental drilling panels, including as Co‑Chair of the International Ocean Discovery Program Science Evaluation Panel.
Miller is the author of 233 peer‑reviewed publications, including 68 as first author, along with 29 technical reports and four books. His work has received 32,101 citations in Google Scholar and 22,124 in Web of Science, with h‑indexes of 85 and 77, respectively. His honors include the 2025 Francis P. Shepard Medal for Marine Geology, the 2018 Laurence L. Sloss Award for Sedimentary Geology, and the 2003 Rosenstiel Award from the University of Miami. He is a two‑time JOI/USSAC Distinguished Lecturer (1995, 2006), an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer (2014–2015), and a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America.
LOCAL RESEARCH COLLECTION AND FOSSIL MUSEUM
MONMOUTH AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGISTS' SOCIETY (MAPS)
The Monmouth Amateur Paleontologists’ Society (MAPS) was founded in 1969 by a small group of enthusiastic fossils collectors led by Ralph O. Johnson. The original group, of approximately 7 members, decided early-on to concentrate on collecting Late Cretaceous age fossils from New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. A small collection, began as an aid to help local collectors identify their fossils, has grown over the years into the MAPS Museum, a full-blown research/reference collection of over 25,000 specimens of both invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, from over 65 localities, with an emphasis on fossil cephalopods.
Curator of Natural History, New Jersey State Museum
Dana Ehret
Dr. Dana Ehret is the Curator of Natural History for the New Jersey State Museum. Dana attended the University of Florida for graduate school, receiving his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology in 2010. Dana’s Ph.D. work investigated the evolution of body size in the megatoothed sharks (Otodus megalodon and its ancestors) and described Carcharodon hubbelli, the transitional white shark. Dr. Ehret is also an
Adjunct at Monmouth University. He was previously Curator of Paleontology at the University of Alabama and Assistant Curator of Natural History for the New Jersey State Museum. Dana has appeared on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week in 2018, as well as Smithsonian Channel programming, has given interviews for National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Popular Mechanics, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, New Scientist, Science Daily, BBC News amongst other media outlets.
Retired RPG (AR# 183)
James Brown
James Brown is a founding member of GANJ and has served the organization over multiple conferences, most recently leading the GANJ 2019 conference entitled Geology and Paleontology of Monmouth County, New Jersey.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR HOST AND CONFERENCE PARTNER
Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University
Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University is an immersive museum experience that brings awe and wonder to young explorers and life-long learners. Our one-of-a-kind fossil park and museum feature full-scale dinosaurs, live animal encounters, an interactive fossil scavenger hunt, free-roaming virtual reality, a unique fossil-digging experience in our active research quarry, and so much more. At EFM, you are transported 66 million years back in time to discover a world once lost, the world of the dinosaurs, but now found.
Discover the Past. Protect the Future. For more information, visit: www.efm.org.
