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Paleontologist says NJ school lost his 380M-year-old fossils, and now they're in a landfill
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 17, 2025
Modified Mar 17, 2025
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Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 17, 2025
Modified Mar 17, 2025
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A professor said the North Jersey university where he works lost his collection of 380 million-year-old fossils.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, paleontologist Martin Becker accuses William Paterson University in Wayne of negligence in caring for the fossils, which he was trying to ship to a colleague in Florida. They ended up in a landfill instead, he said.
The fossil collection was Becker's life's work, having been accumulated over the course of 18 years, according to the suit. It was made up of Devonian Age marine invertebrates that reached Wayne via glacier boulders over millions of years during the last ice age.
“Plaintiff’s assemblage of the fossils is the most unique and comprehensive collection of marine fossils ever reported in Northern New Jersey,” the lawsuit reads. “The fossil assemblage was an integral part of plaintiff’s life and all aspects of his career, and was a critical factor in plaintiff’s good name and stupendous reputation at William Paterson and the fields of paleontology and geology.”
Becker's discoveries have been featured often in news media. In 2019, NJ Spotlight News described how he'd explore the wooded areas near a William Paterson University parking lot for large squid-like creatures called Nautiloids, finding them in boulders that had once been as far north as Albany or the Adirondacks.
Last June, after deciding to collaborate with a colleague in Florida, Becker packaged 200 fossils — around 80% of his collection — into 19 packages, and brought them to the university mailroom, the lawsuit said. The mailroom supervisor, Raymond Boone, told Becker he would send him a tracking number, but failed to do so, according to the lawsuit. It also names Boone as a defendant.
When the packages still hadn’t arrived, Becker followed up with Boone multiple times in mid-August, finally getting the tracking number, according to the lawsuit. It alleges that over the course of the next month, Boone told Becker he was “working on the issue” with UPS, telling Becker on Sept. 20 that they may be in the UPS fraud department.
Finally on Sept. 30, Becker contacted UPS directly, according to the suit. That’s when he learned for the first time that UPS’s fraud department had intercepted the packages because William Paterson had failed to pay the shipping company’s invoices, and the school’s account had been canceled, the lawsuit said.
The package had been dumped at a landfill somewhere in Nashville, Tenn., according to the lawsuit.
Becker’s suit accuses the school and Boone of negligence, and breaching their duty of care to him — first by failing to pay UPS to maintain their account, and then by accepting his packages and sending them out. It also argues William Paterson had reason to believe Boone was unfit for his job, and was negligent in hiring him.
Becker is seeking compensatory and punitive damages after having “incurred medical expenses due to emotional distress resulting from the destruction of his life’s work.”
Becker and his attorney didn't return phone messages Monday seeking comment. A call to the number listed as Boone’s on the school’s website was answered, but immediately cut off after a reporter identified herself. William Paterson University did not answer requests for comment.
Tagged
public safety
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new jersey
Catalina Gonella
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