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?
Tag: New Zealand
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
Thinking Outside the Triangle – Polynesian Origins
New Zealand school kids, at least when I was one, were taught to draw the Polynesian triangle. It has Hawaii at the top corner, Easter Island at another, and New Zealand at the third. Within this triangle, so we were told, are Polynesian cultures. Outside of it you have, for example, Micronesian and Melanesian. Within… Continue reading Thinking Outside the Triangle – Polynesian Origins
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 Highlands Motorsport Park ‘Jurassic Forest Safari’
Growing up in Alexandra it inconceivable that Cromwell might somehow overtake Alex. Alexandra was The Hub. Cromwell was the little place you passed through on the way to the little villages of Queenstown or Wanaka, where you holidayed. But things have happened in Cromwell, and one of the big things is the Highlands Motorsport Park.… Continue reading The Highlands Motorsport Park ‘Jurassic Forest Safari’
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
New Zealand – Beeches Invade Paradise!
In the old days in New Zealand, you needed to add the right prefix to telephone numbers to ring the adjacent villages. Our number was a 3-digit figure in the Clyde exchange. To ring Alexandra, 6 km down the road, I think we had to prefix their 4-digit numbers with a 1. To get us, they… Continue reading New Zealand – Beeches Invade Paradise!