Category Archives: Fossils

DNA finds kiwi’s origins: Introducing Stewie

10 December 2012 – 12.35pm

A number of biological specimens in Te Papa’s collection, particularly old specimens, lack information about when and where they were collected. This information may have been lost since the specimen was collected or was simply not recorded at the time.

However, all is not lost! Sometimes we can use DNA to determine where a specimen was collected.  We recently used DNA sequences to examine the provenance of a number of Te Papa’s unlabelled kiwi specimens.

One particularly stunning specimen we looked at is this articulated kiwi skeleton. 

Articulated kiwi skeleton from Te Papa's collection. Photo by Lara Shepherd.

Articulated kiwi skeleton from Te Papa’s collection. Photo by Lara Shepherd.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog on kiwi the bones of great spotted kiwi and the three species of brown species are very similar in size and shape and can’t be distinguished. Therefore, this kiwi skeleton could have potentially belonged to any of these four species.

To obtain bone material for our genetic analysis we drilled a small hole underneath the pelvis. Our aim was to minimize the visible damage to the skeleton.

Close-up of the hole we drilled in the pelvis to obtain bone for DNA analysis. Photo by Lara Shepherd.

Close-up of the hole we drilled in the pelvis to obtain bone for DNA analysis. Photo by Lara Shepherd.

 We compared the specimen’s DNA sequence to sequences previously obtained from kiwi from known locations around New Zealand.

The results showed that this kiwi skeleton is a Tokoeka (also known as Southern brown kiwi) from Stewart Island.  This result increases the scientific value of this skeleton and is particularly exciting because there aren’t many kiwi from Stewart Island in museum collections.

Link to our study.

By Lara Shepherd | Also posted in Biodiversity, Birds | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Te Papa researcher’s major contribution to NZ biodiversity inventory

22 May 2012 – 10.16am

Te Papa scientists figure prominently among the 238 researchers who have contributed to a major new publication: The Inventory of New Zealand Biodiversity.

Te Papa taxonomists whos work was instrumental in describing over 80% of the animal groups for New Zealand

Te Papa taxonomists whose work was instrumental in describing over 80% of the animal groups for New Zealand. Photo Jean-Claude Stahl. Copyright Te Papa.

 The third and final volume of this 12-year project was launched at Te Papa yesterday, and celebrated the work of scientists from 19 countries, cataloguing over 56,000 species.

Dennis Gordon with the third volume of the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity launched in Wellington 21 May 2012

Dennis Gordon with the third volume of the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity launched in Wellington 21 May 2012. Photo Jean-Claude Stahl. Copyright Te Papa.

The work was brought together by Dennis Gordon from NIWA, with contributions from all major research institutions in New Zealand including Crown Research Institutes, museum researchers such as Te Papa’s Natural Environment curators, and researchers in universities and government agencies. The work is used actively by researchers nationally and globally to describe and catalogue species occurring within the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. For example, the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR), the official body which lists names of species occurring in New Zealand uses the Inventory as one of its primary sources of data. Find out more about NZOR.

http://www.nzor.org.nz/

Te Papa’s team of taxonomist are a small but highly effective group, contributing around 20% of the chapters authored on the major animal groups by professional New Zealand contributors to the books. They contributed to chapters that described over 80% ofNew Zealand’s animals. Their work encompasses a very broad range of species, with expertise on animals and plants from orchids to seaweeds, insects and parasites, deep sea fishes and whales to extinct birds.

The work is a monument to the collaborative efforts of researchers across New Zealand, and will have ongoing utility in helping us to manage species and their conservation threats, long term. We appreciate the efforts of the institutions and individuals involved, in particular NIWA, Landcare Research, and Canterbury University Press. Find out more information about the publication.

http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/releases/2012/120405a.shtml

By Susan Waugh | Also posted in Biodiversity, Bugs, insects and spiders, Collections Online, Fish, Museums, Plants | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Animal and plant collections

15 July 2011 – 1.47pm

Te Papa’s Natural Environment team have revamped their webpages. You can access them here.

Collection highlights online include:

North Island Brown Kiwi, Apteryx mantelli, New Zealand. Te Papa

The following links will take you to more information on specific collections:

Let us know below what additional information you would like to see online about Te Papa’s collections of animals and plants.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Birds, Bugs, insects and spiders, Colossal squid, Fish, Plants, Reptiles, Whales | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Fieldtrip to Patea

10 December 2010 – 3.08pm
Patea Field Collection December 4 and 5

Simon and Bruce checking it out near Lake Rotorangi (Kristelle, 5/12/2010)

Last weekend, 4 and 5 December,  Bruce Marshall (Te Papa’s resident malacologist and Collection Manager Mollusca) and Simon Whittaker (Manager, Te Papa Collections) visited Kristelle Plimmer (Curator, Aotea Utanganui – Museum of South Taranaki) in Patea, and the three of them collected minute land snails (24 species found) and specimens of a minute freshwater snail at a seepage in the forest at Lake Rotorangi.

The freshwater snail is possibly Sororipyrgus kutukutu Haase, 2008, the holotype of which can be see on our collections on line site, but confirmation awaits study of the anatomy and DNA.

Sororipyrgus kutukutu Haase, 2008; holotype

Sororipyrgus kutukutu Haase, 2008; holotype

A further rich collection of tiny freshwater snails was made at a seepage in a cutting on Ball Road on the way to the Lake.

Next day they segued to the Patea River, where they collected specimens of the freshwater limpet Latia neritoides, the only light emitting freshwater mollusc in the world. That evening Bruce demonstrated its light production.

Bruce collecting tiny freshwater snails (length about 2.4 mm) from a seep in the forest at Lake Rotorangi (4/12/2010)

Bruce collecting tiny freshwater snails (length about 2.4 mm) from a seep in the forest at Lake Rotorangi (4/12/2010)

After this they visited Waverley Beach, where they viewed the spectacular, richly fossiliferous, 3.5 million year old Waverley Shellbed, exposed at the foot of the cliff to the north of the settlement.

Further north on the beach they viewed standing and fallen trees from a drowned fossil forest exposed by erosion, as well as fossil soils, thick peat layers and beds of seeds and leaves.

Bruce and Simon checking out the fossils in the Waverley Shellbed, north of the settlement at Waverley Beach. The trunks of the fossil trees from the drowned forest can be seen in the distance (Kristelle, 5/12/2010)

Bruce and Simon checking out the fossils in the Waverley Shellbed, north of the settlement at Waverley Beach. The trunks of the fossil trees from the drowned forest can be seen in the distance (Kristelle, 5/12/2010)

Bruce discovered casts of hitherto unknown bivalve in the sediment containing the trees, which had evidently been deposited in a swamp. The placename of nearby Waitotara, incidentally, is derived from trees from a fossil forest exposed in the Waitotara River.

Bruce looking for fossil bivalves in the sediment containing fossils tree from the drowned forest exposed on Waverley Beach (Kristelle, 5/12/2010)

Bruce looking for fossil bivalves in the sediment containing fossils tree from the drowned forest exposed on Waverley Beach (Kristelle, 5/12/2010)

By lucyhoffman | Also posted in Collections Online | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Fossils uncovered!

6 September 2010 – 9.08am
Sphenodontid

Sphenodontid, collected 13 Dec 2001, St Bathans. Vinegar Hill, Site 1, New Zealand. Field Collection 2002-2004. Te Papa.

Normally fossils are found in the field but in this case Te Papa technicians and I have been rediscovering an early accumulation of fossil reptiles and fish held in Te Papa’s collections that have not been examined for decades.

When the Colonial Museum opened in 1865, the Director James Hector, wanted to show New Zealanders natural wonders from around the world, so he set about acquiring all sorts of natural history objects from museums in other countries. Some spectacular fossils were among his acquisitions and Te Papa still has these today.

The fossils that we have now registered and re-housed include skulls and teeth of long extinct reptiles – ichthyosaurs (“fish lizards”) and plesiosaurs (think Loch Ness Monster) – as well as remains of ancient fish – particularly shark’s teeth.

Plesiosauria

Plesiosauria, collected Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. Te Papa.

Dozens of the ichthyosaur, plesiosaur and fish remains originate from the Jurassic Lyme Regis fossil beds in Dorset, England. This site is one of the most famous fossil localities in the world because the giant reptile remains found here in the early 1800s, most famously by Mary Anning, were clearly of extinct species – yet at the time the concept of extinction was virtually unheard of. Dinosaurs, for example, were only discovered later. Te Papa’s fossil reptile and fish collection also includes more recently acquired specimens, such as dinosaur footprint casts from North America, dinosaur eggs and fragments of a 19 million year old ancestral tuatara from Central Otago.

Te Papa’s Natural Environment Imaging Supervisor Jean-Claude Stahl has been photographing many of these fossils and examples of them are shown here. Many others can be accessed through Te Papa’s Collections On-line browser.

Fossils in Te Papa’s Collections Online

Posted by Alan Tennyson, Curator of Fossil Vertebrates

By Te Papa | Also posted in Reptiles | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Dinosaurs in time for Christmas!

10 December 2009 – 1.54pm

I was walking along the corridor at the back of Te Papa the other day and spotted these boxes….

Dinosaur boxes in the corridor

Dinosaur boxes in the corridor. Copyright Te Papa

You see some quite strange things out the back of Te Papa (it could be a blog all of its own ”Out  back Te Papa” ) but this was one of the better ones.

Further investigation revealed that the dinosaurs had escaped from their boxes and were now living in the workshop next door. Some staff got to meet them…

Meeting a dinosaur in the workshop.

Meeting a dinosaur in the workshop. Copyright Te Papa

Since then the dinosaurs have been on the move.  If you look carefully you’ll see their heads poking above the barrier in the Awesome Forces exhibition on Level Two.

From tomorrow you’ll be able to get a proper look at these scary looking raptors, which are part of a makeover of this exhibition. The two dinosaur models come from Germany and are of a dromaeosaur species, Deinonychus.

No one has found fossils of Deinonychus in New Zealand … yet. But they have been found in Antarctica, Australia and other parts of Gondwana so it’s likely that they did live here once.

Did I mention the unusual packing that the dinosaur models arrived in? – nicely padded bra inserts to protect those sharp claws…

Dinosaur model and worried staff member with unusual packing material

I feel a caption competition coming on! Copyright Te Papa

Unusual packing material for dinosaurs

Unusual packing material for dinosaurs. Copyright Te Papa

By pamelalovis | Also posted in Exhibitions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Tales from Te Papa: Iguanodon tooth

4 November 2009 – 4.48pm

In 1825, Gideon Mantell described fossil teeth and bones from a quarry near Cuckfield in Sussex, England. He named these remains ‘Iguanodon’ meaning ‘having teeth like those of an Iguana’ (a lizard), but he correctly determined that they were quite unlike the teeth of any known lizard or mammal.

He is credited with being the first person to recognise the prior existence of a group of animals that were neither mammal nor lizard and that were subsequently named ‘dinosaurs’ in 1842 (by Richard Owen).

Dr Hamish Campbell writes about Gideon Mantell below:

Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) lived in Lewes near Brighton where he practised as a doctor. He enjoyed a reputation as an outstandingly successful obstetrician; very few mothers or babies lost their lives due to childbirth when he was involved. He was highly intelligent, well-educated and a skilled artisan. However, to the detriment of his marriage (1816-1839) to Mary Anne, he developed an abiding interest in natural history and, in particular, paleontology.

The Country of the Iguanodon, 1837 by John Martin (1789–1854), watercolour. Gift of Mrs Mantell-Harding, 1961. Image © Te Papa.

The Country of the Iguanodon, 1837 by John Martin (1789–1854), watercolour. Gift of Mrs Mantell-Harding, 1961. Image © Te Papa.

On his death, his sons inherited his estate but it was the younger Walter Mantell who ultimately acquired many of his father’s fossil collections, including the famous ‘Iguanodon tooth’ that resides here at Te Papa.

Walter first came to New Zealand in 1839 with the New Zealand Company. He was to spend much of his adult life here and played a significant role in the early colonial development of New Zealand, including the establishment of the Colonial Museum, the original fore-runner to Te Papa. Many descendents of Walter Mantell reside in New Zealand to this day.

By janekeig | Also posted in Collections Online | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (7)

New Zealand’s dinosaur expert passes away

7 July 2009 – 7.33pm
Dinosaur toe bone found by Joan Wiffen

Dinosaur toe fossil found by Joan Wiffen

Joan Wiffen, who found hard evidence that dinosaurs had inhabited New Zealand, died this month aged 87.

I’m not a scientist, but I do have an interest in the history of science, and even I can see that Wiffen made historically significant and far-reaching contributions to scientific thinking.

First findings

In 1975, Wiffen found something remarkable in a remote stream in nothern Hawkes Bay - a fossilised tail ‘bone’ of a therapod. A therapod was a large (four metres long) meat-eating, two-legged dinosaur related to the tyrannosaur.

It took four years for the specimen to be identified but the wait proved something previously unthinkable: that dinosaurs had inhabited New Zealand, or at least its geological predecessor. This meant that there was a past connection to Gondwanaland.  

Nickname from work

Joan Wiffen, who was a self-taught scientist, gained the nickname the ‘Dinosaur Lady’ for obvious reasons. She also received formal awards, like an honorary doctorate, for her contributions to vertebrate palaeontology.

Find out more

Some of the fossils that Wiffen discovered are displayed in Awesome Forces at Te Papa. Many museum staff have fond memories of working with her on exhibitions. More details about Joan Wiffen’s life and work are on the National Library website.

In a chapter about ‘Zealandian Dinosaurs’, in their book In Search of Ancient New Zealand (2007), Hamish Campbell and Gerard Hutching also discuss the importance of Wiffen’s discoveries.

By Kirstie Ross | Also posted in Events, Exhibitions | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The deluge and the ark

4 February 2009 – 10.10am

The lower jaw of a tuatara (sphenodon). Three teeth are visible along the top. This was the first fossil bone found at St Bathans. Image copyright Te Papa

Recently, a group of researchers in New Zealand suggested that the absence of fossils between 25 and 22 million years ago indicated that the islands completely disappeared under water, and then later re-emerged. But a newly discovered fossil reptile suggests this theory does not hold water. Alan Tennyson, Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at Te Papa, and colleagues, found the remains of a fossilized reptile jaw at St Bathans in Otago.

Curator of Fossil Vertebrates, Alan Tennyson, excavating the St Bathans site in Otago. Image copyright Te Papa

Curator of Fossil Vertebrates, Alan Tennyson, excavating the St Bathans site in Otago. Image copyright Te Papa

The teeth in the fossil jaw and their wear patterns is unique to the tuatara and its ancestors. But what is most exciting about Alan’s fossil is its age: it dates to just 3 million years after a time when other researchers have suggested the land mass sank beneath the waves.

After the ancestral New Zealand continent broke away from Australia and Antarctica, it drifted northwards and, due to a combination of tectonic movements and rising sea-levels, the total land area shrank considerably, but just how small the land area was reduced to is open to debate.

If the entire land area was submerged, the ancestral tuatara discovered by Alan and his colleagues, and all of New Zealand’s biodiversity, could only have arrived after the land re-emerged. To do this, the ancient reptile would have had to cross vast oceans – an unlikely feat for an animal that is a poor swimmer that would have rapidly dehydrated in salt water.

It’s not just the tuatara fossil that suggests New Zealand did not fully drown.

There are many different species in the St Bathans fossil deposit – about 24 species of birds, as well as plants, insects, and freshwater fish. There is no evidence that these species lived in Australia at the time, and most would not have been able to survive a lengthy sea journey. This suggests that ancient New Zealand did not disappear, but remained as an isolated island chain, allowing many species to survive and then repopulate as the continental crust re-emerged.

Reference: Jones, M, E.H.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, J.; Evans, S.E.; Worthy, T.H. (2009). A sphenodontine (Rhynchocephalia) from the Miocene of New Zealand and paleobiogeography of the tuatara (Sphenodon). Proceedings of the Royal Society B

By chrispaulin | Also posted in Reptiles | Tagged | Comments (3)
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