Formation · Cretaceous
Navesink Formation
Late Cretaceous unit, New Jersey
The Navesink Formation of Monmouth County, New Jersey, is the greensand that makes Big Brook and Ramanessin Brook the best Cretaceous shark-tooth collecting in the northeastern United States: Squalicorax, Scapanorhynchus (goblin shark), Cretolamna, Enchodus fangs, Belemnitella guards, Exogyra oysters and occasional mosasaur teeth. The county's daily limit and hand-tool rule are enforced. Teeth from the brooks are small and beautifully preserved; large Navesink teeth in trade generally come from older stream and pit collections.
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Region | New Jersey |
| Age | Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous |
| Age range | ~72–66 Ma |
| Group | Monmouth Group |
| Macrostrat rank | Fm· Macrostrat |
| Macrostrat age | 70.8–69.1 Ma· Macrostrat |
| Lithology | sand, clay, silt· Macrostrat |
| Environment | marine· Macrostrat |
| Macrostrat columns | 4 column(s) sampled from 4 unit(s)· Macrostrat |
| PBDB collections | 47 collections, 358 occurrences· Paleobiology Database |
Collecting and legality
Big Brook Preserve in Monmouth County is county park land with posted rules: five fossils per person per day, hand trowels and sieves only, no digging in banks; Poricy Park and Ramanessin Brook have similar rules. Finds are for personal collections and should not be sold.
Lithology and setting
Dark greensand (glauconitic marl) with a basal reworked lag of phosphatised shark teeth and bone at the Mount Laurel contact.
Commonly recorded taxa (PBDB)
Genera most often recorded from this unit in the Paleobiology Database (first 200 occurrences): Mosasaurus (9), Hadrosauridae (8), Squalicorax (8), Cucullaea (5), Agerostrea (4), Belemnitella (4), Choristothyris (4), Cliona (4), Pycnodonte (4), Baculites (3), Carcharias (3), Cimoliasaurus (3), Cretalamna (3), Exogyra (Exogyra) (3), Gyrodes (3).
Source: Paleobiology Database
Collecting rules
Elsewhere
- Macrostrat: 1401
- macrostratConcept: 2951
- PBDB: strata:Navesink
- Wikidata: Q6982271
- Macrostrat stratigraphic name
- PBDB occurrences for this unit
- Wikipedia: Navesink Formation
- Mindat: Navesink Formation
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Navesink Formation" (Formation). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/formations/navesink-formation. Accessed 2026-09-20.
@misc{stratum-navesink-formation,
title = {Navesink Formation},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/formations/navesink-formation}},
year = {2026},
note = {Formation article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, macrostrat, pbdb, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.