When planning to do a short bio on Dr. Grimaldi, I e-mailed
and asked him a couple of questions for clarification. I believe he answered
them quite nicely:
"I've been at the museum for 10 years, and in that period have been able to build up one of the best research collections of amber in the world, perhaps the best. While the collection of Baltic amber fossils is modest by comparison to some of the big European collections, out collection of Mexican and Dominican ambers is probably the largest and certainly most diverse collection in the world. I scan thousands of pieces each month to find rare, unusual, new and unique taxa, in collaboration with dealers. The AMNH has also been very fortunate to acquire two collections of lower Cretaceous Lebanese amber; the oldest amber with insects preserved in it (actually, there are a few other deposits of amber with insects of comparable age from England and Japan, but these finds are quite small in quantity by comparison). The Lebanese collections plus the New Jersey collections we have assembled- nearly 1000 pieces with inclusions, c. 92 ma- make our collections one of the very best for Cretaceous ambers. The site which has yielded most of the New Jersey amber is now closed: after 5 years of hand excavations, we did a large excavation there in October with several big pieces of equipment and were able to excavate most of the lignite where amber lies, and thus the amber itself. The excavations were then backfilled and compacted so that development can be done anytime. Besides the Cretaceous ambers, I have been doing field work in the Arctic and especially in western North America exploring new Tertiary deposits, and several times have been very successful. There are some exciting new deposits to be worked on. I have also made about 20 field trips to the Dominican Republic, studying the amber formations and the modern insect fauna (for comparison).
As an amber specialist one often finds they need to be a jack of all trades; stratigrapher, organic chemist, biochemist, entomologist, sometimes a botanist. My central focus, though, is the evolution and biogeography of insects. In this respect one cannot be relegated just to fossils that are found in amber, even though these have the finest preservation. I have worked and continue to work on the vast deposits of lower Cretaceous (Aptian) insects from the Santana Formation of Brazil. I am completing a big study on Triassic insects from Virginia (one of only 4 significant deposits of Triassic insects in the world). Having an intimate, working knowledge of of fossil insects in general definately allows one to have a broader perspective on insects in amber than someone who restricts themselves to just that. Fossilization in amber and fossilization in rock are both highly biased modes of preservation: together they provide a more complete picture of ancient life."
Dr. Grimaldi has a brand new book coming out with the title Studies on Fossils in Amber, with Particular Reference to the Cretaceous of New Jersey. What a mouthful! This book should be a wonderful resource, as he pretty much has a lock on this site in New Jersey. Grimaldi is the editor of the book, which is roughly 500 pages with 17 color plates and numerous black and white prints. Co-authors of this book are Alexander Shedrinsky and Thomas P. Wampler. Cost is around $160.00. Seems a little steep but the serious collector should probably include it among other reference books in their stash. Tthe site near Sayresville in New Jersey was owned by a private developer who turned all but the last few acres into strip malls and apartment complexes. While digging into this last acreage, amber was found by someone who recognized it as something important. My friend Yale Goldman got wind of the site and headed up there to collect some before the bulldozers got hold of it. In talking with some of the construction workers at the site, he was told that they had found lots of it while they were digging for the apartments and shops. In the winter, they would throw chunks of it into barrels, set it on fire and let the odor waft over the site as they worked - this turns my stomach. Imagine what was lost to science and to collectors in those stupid barrels!
Books by Dr. David Grimaldi:
Amber: Window to the Past, 1996
Studies on Fossils in Amber, with Particular Reference to the Cretaceous
of New Jersey, 2001
Please check
out Amazon.com for Dr. Grimaldi's technical papers and publications
Courtesy of Dr. David Grimaldi, AMNH, New York City
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