If you make your way down to almost the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, you can walk among the stumps of a petrified Jurassic forest (that’s about 170 million years old). It’s a gem of New Zealand’s fossil plant history, and because of its complete preservation -pine tree stumps and tree-fern stumps, it’s practically unique. Get… Continue reading New Zealand: The Jurassic fossil forest at Curio Bay
Tag: New Zealand paleobotany
Five Degrees of Global Warming – The Leaf Fossils of Kakahu, New Zealand
Sometime in the 1980s my Prof, ‘JDC’ (Doug Campbell of the Otago University), showed me a box of spectacular leaf fossils that had been collected from Kakahu by Graeme Mason while “out rabbiting”. Kakahu is a farming district in the hills, a few kilometres out of Geraldine, in New Zealand. Leaf fossils had been known… Continue reading Five Degrees of Global Warming – The Leaf Fossils of Kakahu, New Zealand
Where was the Murihiku in the Jurassic?
A few years ago I used to teach American classes that came to the University of Queensland. One evening my Stanford class had just arrived and I wandered over to their college accommodation to say Hello. I came across an odd sight – a knot of students surrounding what turned out to be a young… Continue reading Where was the Murihiku in the Jurassic?
Globalisation in the Jurassic – the fossil fern Coniopteris in New Zealand
One of the plant fossils that turns up in New Zealand’s Jurassic rocks is a delicate-looking fern frond called Coniopteris (Arber, 1917; Edwards, 1934; see featured image). The well-known Jurassic fossil forest at Curio Bay (Pole 1999) would have had Coniopteris growing in it. And, oddly enough, it’s in the same family as one of… Continue reading Globalisation in the Jurassic – the fossil fern Coniopteris in New Zealand
Palissya – mysterious cone of New Zealand’s Jurassic forests
In the early 1980s when I was working on the Jurassic fossil forest of Curio Bay, near the bottom end of New Zealand’s South Island, it seemed clear that two main types of tree formed the forest canopy. There were two types of conifer foliage fossil around Curio Bay- one type had the fine, feather-like shoots like today’s matai,… Continue reading Palissya – mysterious cone of New Zealand’s Jurassic forests
Almost a Holocaust – the latest Triassic, Pollock Road, New Zealand
What a difference nearly thirty years makes. In 1986 the Prof of Geology at Otago University showed me some recently collected plant fossils and asked to me to “confirm they are Jurassic”. The fossils had been collected by Steve Cournane, while he was mapping for his research in Southland farming country. They came from a small… Continue reading Almost a Holocaust – the latest Triassic, Pollock Road, New Zealand
Cabin Fever and Paleocene leaf fossils in the Haast
Easter, 1971. The family is holed-up in a tiny home-made caravan at Cole Creek, in New Zealand’s forest-clad South Westland just north of Haast. It’s bucketing-down. We’re there because our Dad has an infatuation with finding the missing backpack of a murdered woman, Jennifer Beard. The pack might just solve the case (the back pack was… Continue reading Cabin Fever and Paleocene leaf fossils in the Haast
The Fossil Palm Swamps of Central Otago, New Zealand
One of the endearing memories I have during my PhD was working on the banks above the Kawarau River near Cromwell (Central Otago, New Zealand), in the middle of the winter. I was belting my way with a pick into a sequence of mud that was frozen solid. This was probably a good thing, as… Continue reading The Fossil Palm Swamps of Central Otago, New Zealand
The Fossil Palm Swamps of Central Otago, New Zealand
One of the endearing memories I have during my PhD was working on the banks above the Kawarau River near Cromwell (Central Otago, New Zealand), in the middle of the winter. I was belting my way with a pick into a sequence of mud that was frozen solid. This was probably a good thing, as… Continue reading The Fossil Palm Swamps of Central Otago, New Zealand
Supplejack – a survivor from the Miocene in New Zealand
The first time I ever slept-out (sleeping bag, no tent), I was about four years old, and the place was an idyllic spot on the banks of Pipson Creek, just outside of Makarora. Its on the road to the West Coast from Wanaka/Hawea. One of my memories of that family holiday was swinging on a… Continue reading Supplejack – a survivor from the Miocene in New Zealand