A collection of 200 fossils estimated to be around 380 million years old has been lost in a landfill due to a university’s failure to cover shipping costs, according to a lawsuit. The fossils, which had significant scientific value, were supposed to be sent from a New Jersey university to a collaborating professor in Florida. However, they never reached their intended destination and were instead discarded.
The lawsuit was filed by a university professor who had spent nearly two decades collecting the Devonian Age marine invertebrate fossils. These specimens had been transported by glaciers over millions of years and ended up in a region known as High Mountain, just a few miles from the university. They were an integral part of the professor’s research and teaching materials.
According to the complaint, the professor carefully packaged the fossils into 19 separate boxes, each weighing between 20 and 60 pounds, and delivered them to the university’s mailroom for shipping. The mailroom supervisor reportedly assured him that the packages would be sent through UPS and promised to provide tracking details and insurance information.
Despite these assurances, the professor’s colleague in Florida never received the fossils. After several weeks of waiting, he reached out to the mailroom supervisor, who provided a tracking number. Upon checking, the professor discovered that the packages had never left New Jersey.
Over the next several weeks, he repeatedly inquired about the status of the shipment. The mailroom supervisor maintained that he was addressing the issue. It wasn’t until the professor contacted UPS directly that he learned the packages had been confiscated by the company’s fraud department. UPS explained that the university’s account had been canceled months earlier due to unpaid bills.
Further investigation revealed that the fossils had been discarded in an unidentified landfill near Nashville, Tennessee. The professor alleges that the mailroom supervisor was aware of the account cancellation as early as July but failed to disclose this information.
The lawsuit accuses the university and its mailroom supervisor of negligence and seeks financial compensation for the loss of the fossils. The professor argues that the fossils were irreplaceable and held immense scientific and educational value.
University representatives have declined to comment on the matter, and the mailroom supervisor has not responded to inquiries. The case remains ongoing in court.
