Victoria University summer scholar Laura Wilson has spent two months sorting through a box of bones and dirt. The aim? To identify and catalogue the huge array of species represented in Martinborough’s Cave of Bones.Read more
In 2011, Alastair Johnson was hunting for fossils on a remote beach in Taranaki. Three-million-year-old fossil oysters and scallops are common but remains of vertebrates are much rarer. However, on this occasion, something magical appeared out of the rock – the most complete fossil albatross skull ever found. Curator of vertebrates Alan Tennyson tells us more.Read more
Did you know snails can live in the desert? Natural history researcher Rodrigo Salvador tells us a little about a curious set of fossils discovered in Algeria.Read more
With today’s launch of the film The Meg, Curator of Vertebrates Alan Tennyson looks at what we know about the monster that grew to 18 metres and lived in New Zealand’s waters – the megalodon ‘big tooth’ shark (Carcharocles megalodon).Read more
What do you do when you discover what is possibly the largest penguin ever? You name it after your mum. This is what Curator Vertebrates Alan Tennyson – who has a paper on the discovery out today – did.Read more
Inspired by his recent visit to the exhibition Bug Lab, resident geologist Hamish Campbell recounts finding New Zealand’s first pre-Pleistocene fossil bug.Read more
When did kiwi and tuatara arrive in New Zealand and how did they get here? These are the kinds of questions being answered by some amazing fossil discoveries that have been made in Otago in the last few years. I’ve been part of a team of researchers visiting fossil sitesRead more
A study published in the journal Science today reveals a new and unexpected origin for New Zealand’s iconic kiwi and overturns the previous idea that the ancestors of kiwi flew directly over from Australia (see Miocene fossils show that Kiwi are probably not phyletic dwarves, Paleornithological Research 2013, and St Bathan’sRead more
As well as impressive plants, Mount Owen and the Marino Mountains are also zoologically interesting. The wet weather may have prevented us reaching the summit of Mount Owen but it did bring out the slugs and snails. We spotted a giant leaf-veined slug (Amphikonophora gigantea) beside the track on theRead more
I first saw the movie Jurassic Park as a high school student when it was released 20 years ago. At the time it led to a sudden rise in the number of children obsessed with dinosaurs and wanting to be palaeontologists. But for me it was all about the scientists workingRead more
What does a Te Papa curator do? I spent last week following Te Papa’s terrestrial vertebrate curator Alan Tennyson to find out. Here are some of the main highlights: Visitors Monday saw Alan meet with Trish Nugent-Lyne, a collection manager at Whanganui Regional Museum. Te Papa staff are helping TrishRead more
Yesterday was a special day for 20 rowi (a species of the flightless kiwi) who were flown from the South Island to their new home on Mana Island, near Wellington. It was reported that this was the first time that this species of kiwi had been in the North Island forRead more
By Chris Paulin and Alan Tennyson 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 notRead more
