Jul1
MONSTERS
HUNTING FOR DINOSAURS – By Trevor Crabtree
Around about 70 million years ago, give or take a year or two in the late cretaceous was a land we know as Gondwana. Gondwana had a mild temperate climate such as we have here in New Zealand today. Like here today, verdant forests covered the country with bush and scrub the same as now. i.e. Rimu Totara Matai Manuka ect.
The main difference was no grass. Instead plains were covered in fern such as Pigs ear, Bracken and many others. In winter snow fell in the high country with the odd falls lower down.
The population of this benign land situated where Antarctica now takes pride of place had no need to worry about long dark winters. The south pole was not where it is now as we shall see further on. They only had to worry about enough to eat and avoid being the eaten. For this was the era of the Dinosaurs on the land and huge marine reptiles in the oceans filled with fish and other delicacies.
Where they lived then, was a vast plain with a large river delta feeding into large
sheltered bays. Other smaller rivers and streams fed into the warm ocean waters.
Low bush clad hills led up to higher mountain ranges.
This entire environment was such as to be an ideal breeding area for all concerned both on land or on sea. On land, large carnivores theropods were the kings.
In the sea, “Kronosaurs” and “Mosasaurs” vied for supremacy with the “Kronosaurs” almost as big as Blue Whales winning with out a doubt.
Unknown to all the inhabitants of this lush paradise disaster was about to strike.
Far out in the Cosmos a series of large Asteroids were heading their way led by a really large Planet basher. Its Target what is now India / Tibet.
In 1978 a team from the university of California and Lawrence Berkeley lab. found iridium in a thin layer of rock .66 million years old this iridium rich layer lies on the boundary between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary. Now known as the K.T. boundary. Common in Meteorites and Asteroids iridium is rare on earth. The Berkeley scientists proposed the planet had been hit by an Asteroid 10 Kilometres or 6 miles across. I agree. But, the Asteroid was thousands of times larger and only one of a shower of lesser Asteroids which hit Boom, Boom, Boom as the planet rotated . Michael Rampino of New York University and others suspect India was the point of impact causing great basalt lava flows, the K.T. crater being buried beneath the basalt.
Photos from space ( above) give consideration to the Asian theory of a huge impact with upwelling of basalt forming the initial ranges of Asia. Plate Tectonic movements then creating the Himalayers. The planet, reeling from the major impact, rolls a minimum of 90 degrees. The blast and ensuing quakes precede the oceans of the world creating monstrous Tsunamis as they seek new levels.
Earthquakes, rock and water evaporation apart, the Tsunamis wipe out everything in their path. All coastal life i.e. Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs ect. are the first to be swept to their deaths. Land dwellers are next in line as the oceans pick them up, drown, crush and dismember them leaving their carcasses in heaps covered by meters of ocean mud and debris.
Old land masses disappear under water and new form from the previous sea bottoms. The Polar ice caps disappear to reform in their new positions over what was vast temperate forests inhabited by Dinosaurs and their compatriots. This has given rise to some people deciding Dinosaurs existed among snow and ice probably hibernating though the severe winters. This overlooks that forests cannot exist in continuous freezing temperatures.
Now, 66/70 million years later ground erosion uncovers thousands of bones in a great number of areas with lots of theories of how herds of these animals were washed away crossing flooded rivers because eroding river valleys cutting down through ancient sediment have reached the Asteroid and K.T. layers.
Late Cretaceous skeletal remains of marine reptiles were found in the South Island of our country as early as 1861. No terrestrial bones were ever found and Dinosaurs were presumed to have never existed in our land. In the 70s in an inland site of the North Island incomplete reptile specimens from the Piripauan-Haumurian age, or late Cretaceous, representing the first records of Elasmosaurs, Pliosaurs and Mososaurs from the North Island were discovered. The remains occurred mostly, in various sized boulders hard, grey, medium grained calcareous sandstone.
Apart from a large section of rib from a Sauropod, the slight degree of curvature leading to the size of over one meter in length nothing much more was found at this time. Still the hunt for Dinosaur fossils was on. There is nothing like the thrill of finding and opening a concretion and exposing to the eye a bone from something living 70 million years ago. You are the first to see and touch this treasure.
Usually it is a bone from one of the many marine reptiles and their young who died in the world upheaval of long ages past. Their skeletons broken up, mostly to single bones but often large sections of the animals remain articulated.
This area of New Zealand being so vastly different than it was, it is difficult to associate the rugged, deep, bush clad gorges, the towering ranges rearing high above with the way it was then. Birds were as prevalent then as they are now. They have not evolved from Dinosaurs they existed on parallel line of evolution of their own.
Late in the 1970s a Dinosaurian caudal (tail bone) vertebrae was discovered (Molna 1981) then confirmed, indeed, as being from a large Theropod Dinosaur. This led to a re-examination of a previous found phalanx thought to have been from a large terrestrial bird. Now, it, because they are so similar, is still not confirmed. But the general opinion seems to concur it also is from a Theropod.
If I only have a brain.
Expert opinion says that cartilage and soft tissues do not fossilise. They are totally wrong. We have a soft tissue fossil, probably one of the finest in the world. It awaits confirmation by C.A,T. scanning and intense microscopic investigation. A complete Theropod baby’s brain. NOT an endocast, the actual brain.
“My guess it is only just a scrap of marine bone” said an eminent Palaeontologist from the south. Disregarding our 30 years plus experience in the field of marine fossils.
This was the center of a phosphoric concretion. As usual, cut in half to ascertain the contents if any. What showed was a circle of material of most unusual texture.
These phosphoric concretions were impervious to our usual extraction techniques until I discovered that 10% phospheric acid worked wonders. Now acid if not checked will eat into bone overnight. Fortunately the acid did not affect this fossil as being away I forgot it. When I did remember it I found it pushed behind other work. Recovered and cleaned up I found to my surprise 99% of all fine silt was dissolved from the fossil. This left the most unique object I have seen in 30 years of work.
Hours were spent with books, searching the net, all without success. Then, to my delight I found a site which described a brain. This was what I needed. We not only had a soft tissue fossil but all indications were it was a brain. We named it the impossible fossil as I am sure this is what many of those who do not know soft tissue fossilises will say. It is the brain of a baby dinosaur.
In say it is from a Dromaeosaur. A young hatchling who lost its life falling into the soft silt.
Being so young the skull disintegrated depositing the contents,which sunk into the oxygen deprived sediment. A description of the fossil follows
A shows, Peripheral, ns nerves outside brain and spinal cord.
B shows, Duramater, the dense tough membrane enveloping brain and spinal cord.
C shows, Arach ch noid, one of three membranes surrounding the brain and supporting blood vessels. It shows the base of the brain stem. (the Medulla Longata?)
Quite small as one would expect, axis 35mm (1and 3/8′) meridian at back of brain 20mm (11/16″)
Months go by, with Plesiosaur and other reptilian remains showing after arduous scrambling through rugged country and even more rugged boulder beds. Ice cold water is the norm as pumice beds act like a chilli bin i.e. the water stays warm in summer and stopping the circulation in the winter.
One weekend whilst escorting palaeontologists from America and Canada who were looking for mainly Mosasaur fossils, a small slab of bed rock caught my eye. 6 inches thick and about 18 inches square it appeared to have sections of unusual bone partly on the surface. Not worth picking up was the general opinion. I, because, a 4×4 all terrain bike was available after 4 days hard work to open an old bush road for our visitors convenience was not impressed. I decided as, it was not far to carry, slipped it into my pack wending my way back along the creek bed, up the side of a wash out to the waiting vehicle.
Finding material is relatively simple. Getting it out of the creek back, to town is the more difficult part of the equation. More difficult and time consuming still is extracting the bones.
From their million years old resting place. This time it was well worth it. After several weeks cutting and acid work, two bones eventuated 95% complete. Whako!!! Dinosaur???
It is all right to say Dinosaur but next you have to prove it to your satisfaction and other interested parties, Out come all the reference books. Onto the world wide web. Chasing site after site. Nothing like what you have. Then, much to your surprise, there they are, in full colour photography. The book? “The Ultimate Dinosaur Book” by David Lambert. On page122 was Edmontonia one of the largest and latest of the Nodosaurids an armored Dinosaur. This beast had Dermal armour or osteoderms set in the skin. Also known as Scutum, or collar plates they protected the back of Edmontonias neck and the area between its shoulders from attack by something such as Tyrannosaurid fangs. In life a horn sheath would have covered the plates. One of the plates each being one of a pair, would be from the largest and hindmost of three rows. The other, also one of a pair from the first row.
Fossiking below a rapid one evening, I picked up a small phosphoric concretion, small enough to drop into my pocket. These concretions were laid down in fresh water streams, washed down to the ocean by floods. Because they contain no calcite they are not products of the ocean.
This one when broken open showed compact bone (diaphyses) the density of terrestrial reptiles.
Great excitement, Dinosaur?? This was before the advent of phospheric acid extraction necessitating hours of painstaking work removing silt grain by grain. Loosening them by painting Nitric acid on to the rock then washing off within a minute. Dangerous, as it was used undiluted, outside in the breeze, to waft the fumes over to the neighbors backyard. Not recommended. Eventually it became fully disclosed.
The extremities of the bone being similar to a Mosasaur a few doubts were, and indeed still are exercised about it being a Dinosaur. An orthopedic surgeons opinion was sort, he, emphatically stated it was a foot bone from a biped. Why? because it was definitely similar to a human foot bone. He then pointed out the similarities, especially where the next bone fitted and where the tendon channel was. “It is a bone from a foot. Do not let anyone tell you different” were his final words. O.K. that settled that, But what type of Dinosaur had this type of bone in its feet? On a trip to Auckland a stop was made in Elleslie for my wife to buy a skirt. The Readers Digest had a book depot in the same shop. Looking around I noticed a book written by Jinny Johnson, illustrated by Elisabeth Grey and Steve Kirk about dinosaur skeletons. I replaced it on the shelf and off we went back to Napier. When home I had occasion to show this foot bone to a visitor. Something clicked. I had seen this bone in that book. I rang the depot and found myself talking to Sydney Australia
“Never heard of it” the man said. “it is not one of ours it is not on the computer”. “Maybe not but it is on the shelf in Auckland” I replied “Well I suggest you go and get it”
We did, we went. I am sorry, we will order you a copy, you can not have this one”. “How can you order it? If it is not on your computer?” They check and no it is not.
“Oh all right let him have it he has come all the way from Napier”.
Home, out comes the bone, open goes the book. There it is. A Dromaeosauris Theropod foot bone second back from the claw. We have another Dinosaur bone.
The Mangahouanga flows through a known earthquake fault. In places sheer rock walls form a rift. (i.e, a split in bed rock). Foaming rapids and waterfalls difficult to negotiate abound in these areas accessible only by raft. On most bends accumulations of Cretaceous Concretions and others are swept on to the outside during periodic flooding creating small beaches.
When in high flood, saturated thick with pumice, even large boulders float in the resulting sludge. One such concretion broken in half sat high above normal water level on a very large rock. When whole about as large as a soccer ball, the cross section showed the shaft of a limb bone from a juvenile marine reptile. It was unusual in the fact it seemed to have a large blood vessel lengthwise though the shaft. Now marine reptiles, do not have this feature, or, do some species?
This made it worthwhile to wrap it in the pack, tossing it into the raft, with some dissention. “this is a survey trip. Not a collection run!”. Looking at the formidable journey ahead. The other half was found some months later three kilometers down stream. Six long arduous hours later it was safe at site H.Q, ready for its trip to the work shop.
Taken from its cocoon of stone weeks later it was indeed found to be the head and shaft of a juvenile Pliosaur. But, it had a foramen (blood vessel) large enough to poke my little finger in running though the center almost to the head.
Impossible! Marine reptiles do not have this foramen cried the expert from the U.S.A.
When sent a photo, Whoops! I am not to old to learn, what species would you suggest?.
I suggested a species known by very little fossil remains. A young Kronosaur for they were the largest of all the marine giants of the time. They went very deep down into the depths to feed on giant squids and such like. This meant their circulation had to be greater than others to sustain the extreme pressure and cold.
Later teenage adult remains, showed another difference. Corocoid and Pubic bones grew in layers like the rings in trees as they aged. Another first for the experts to mull over. When you have material that few, if any, have seen or heard of from the age of the Dinosaurs you have the problem of acceptance with out a P.H.D. in palaeontology to your name.
Weather plays an abnormal part in searching for Dinosaurs in conditions where a false step can, at best, lead to a soaking in ice cold water, or worst, lacerated flesh and broken bones.
Sudden changes from sun to sleet is common when working in a gorge this far into the high country. You do not see it coming. When it does your only procedure is to get out while you can. Struggle up though dense bush to an old bush road 500 or so meters above.
A light bush jacket is not much help as large hail stones plummet down through the bush canopy with Lawyer vines doing their best to hold you in their clutches. Ever frightening are the gales that often precede the change. Ancient trees whose roots do not go deep into the pumice, often are brought down when you least expect it. You never shelter beneath a forest giant.
An old army hut with a lean too added for a kitchen fire place, used as a hunting and fishing base was used as a back drop for a photo shoot one evening. Retracing the track next morning found only a huge pile of kindling. A great Red Beech tree had uprooted in the night crushing all and sundry, fortunately no one was in residence at the time.
It was one such day of this kind of weather that two phosphoric concretions were plucked from the water at a ford on the road to the Te Hoe river. I was just checking the condition of the stream with a companion when bending down he pulled the first out with a wry grin
“Here is an egg for you”. To my astonishment, it was. The one I found was given a cursory look, it had what looked like bone on one end and was shoved into my trouser pocket. There was bigger fish to fry.
The first 67million year old cretaceous egg to be found in New Zealand. Not a Dinosaur.
A birds egg with an embryo. You could not be blamed for expecting great excitement among the professional fraternity. Yes? No! Impossible! An egg of this age would be crushed beyond recognition. All this without seeing the actual fossil . I was informed by one, the bones were only sand forms when he saw photos. I do not know what you have but it cannot be an egg. Oh yeah? The complete set of photos were sent to the late Ron Scarlett. Then, the country’s most experienced fossil bird expert.
Congratulations on your very important find. I am sorry, though, that I am as baffled as you are to identify the bird. I have seen a number of illustrations and papers on cretaceous birds but not in such an immature stage. I can not think, at present, of any expert who may have knowledge of cretaceous bird chickens. If I do I will let you know.
The egg was X-rayed. This showed under the existing shell more bones.
Next, with great co-operation from the Hawk’s Bay hospital, an eager staff were given permission to C.A.T. scan it The first fossil scan this team had ever done.
Would it?? Did it work?? Eureka! Yes it sure did. The scan showed the hidden side under what was left of the shell. It was a toothed bird. More bones were evident and low and behold, fossilized flesh and feathers were apparent.
That, to us settled that. All the sceptics could stay in their ivory towers. We had our first egg from the age of the Dinosaurs.
Remember I said we picked up two?. The second concretion, when extracted proved to be almost half a birds skull. ” Only a shattered piece of vertebrae”. I was told. Just as well I
Have learnt to distrust these remarks, for once again, another first. We had what appears to be a section of a goose skull. Do we have a hen and chicken?
Over the following years two more bird eggs have been discovered. One in a very hard concretion still awaits work on it. It shows shell, skull and tops of other bones. One, according to the late Ron Scarlett when he visited the site, is a corocoid. His suggestion was to break the concretion further, I have vetoed that for now. Perhaps when my patience runs out.
The third egg was only noticed when a medium slab of stone with 6 or 7 concretions embedded within was placed in acid to burble away at its hearts content. Taken out and washed a large oval section broke away from the rest. One third of this was black which to my eyes, meant the squamatic or spongyosis layer of egg shell. Cleaned more carefully Cartilagic bones stood out. Coated with resin it was replaced in acid. Because the fossil rock was so permeable acid seeped through the coating, altering the colour to a light brown. The bright spot to this slight set back was it exposed a section of eggshell.
Without any eggshell a fossil like this is just a collection of bones. Shell MUST be present for it to be an egg. Quite large, with further bone lying across the top, the decision was made to leave it as is. The egg is possibly from a large member of the aquatic family known as Hesperornis. Now, like the Dinosaur, extinct.
Although articulated marine reptile bones are not unusual still joined Dinosaur remains are still elusive. Single bones remain the norm.
The cellular texture of Dinosaur bones, especially limb, are of a dense structure except at the ends where they become cancellous or, spongy. This, in the case of the tibia, continues with the astragalus, or ankle bone pads having more open cellular construction so as to soften the joint. Consequently we are assured “Oh that is a marine bone”. Once again overlooking 30 years of hard learned experience with marine bones and the structure of the same.
Sorry, the two astragalus we have are dinosaur. Only the Genus (family) or species (type) are in question. One could be from a young Sauropod, the other a young Nodosaur. Without having any for comparison, for juvenile dinosaur remains are very rare, we cannot confirm either at present.
Summer is the time for field work. Warm stable weather with long hours of daylight.
We had visitors from the Isle of Wight off the coast of southern England. A couple, both
Palaeontologists, were with us for the long holiday week end.
The stream was low, the light right to view anything below the surface. You can rock hop for a morning covering a good kilometer or so without seeing a fossil. Turn and retrace your steps for home and fossils appear miraculously from nowhere as the light changes. We had paused for a rest and a bite to eat. Packs off and find a soft spot to rest weary feet.
Catching my eye at the edge of a pool in about a foot of water was a large slab of greensand.
Greensand is formed from the residue originating in oxygen deprived stagnant water.
The emerald green algae so noticeable in these conditions. Any fossil material found in these circumstances tend to be of perfect quality. As the saying goes, in boots and all, to recover this for along the edge was what looked to be an enormous tooth. Greensand is also much softer than cretaceous sandstone. After salvaging the slab I was able to cut around the object with my sheath knife. Clearing about 80% of the sand away.
“It is a whopping big tooth”, I exclaimed joyously “Well it certainly appears to be “, was the reply from our guests “But we have never seen anything that looks like this”
As they turned it around in their hands, I asked, which end would be the root?. Now that created a discussion, for which end was which. The fourth member of our party stepped in and stated. “It can not be a tooth that big, it must be a large seed pod”.
Months later this fossil was taken to the States where, at a conference it was shown to one or two. “Do not know, It could be a large seed pod”. I, as usual, was not happy about this and some years later showed it to two Americans travelling the world looking at Mosasaur fossils.
“I would like to know what this is. If you do not know please say so. I am not interested in a guess” Examining it their eyes grew wide.
“This is the second largest Pliosaur tooth we have ever seen, the largest is in the British Museum of Natural History. This is just a shade smaller.
Success at last, All doubts put to rest Could something this large be from a “Kronosaur?”..
It was wondered often if Pterosaurs ever flew our skies. Nothing was found until one day fossicking around in a box of odd rocks under my work bench, I came across a rather strange shell.. On the surface of a relatively small fossil rock it intrigued me. Now I am not into looking for members of the molluscs family but this seemed to say look at me.
I did, days of careful grinding and even more careful acid work produced, not, as expected an unusual shell but the distal portion of a pterosaur ulna. Or in layman’s terms half a wing bone. Whilst at this time I was unaware, It represented the first Mesozoic flying vertebrate
From New Zealand. There was an additional bonus, a tooth, split length wise and therefore visible in section was lodged in the sandstone matrix in a crushed area of the shaft. Presumably from the same animal as the wing bone. This specimen finished up in the New Zealand Geological survey collection no CD 467.
It never ceases to amaze me , the number of people who think we just walk along the Mangahouanga stream bed , picking these objects up like stones off the beach. Never dreaming of the hours of concentrated work involved in preparing each museum piece.
Back to Cretaceous eggs.
Until 2002 no Dinosaur eggs had been found although I always thought it only a matter of time as I had already discovered several complete baby dinosaur bones and three cross sections of them eroded over the years out of the concretions.
An oval phospheric rock, by great fortune broken just right, supplied the first. The only professional to see it decrys it as a fish bone on a mollusc shell. Totally ignoring the enlarged photo accompanying the specimen. This showed the skull in pristine condition. Compared with photos of similar skulls it matched to perfection. On the rear of the egg is a cross section of the animals forearm showing the lattice like construction of the bone with soft tissue marrow still intact. So much for experts when they attempt to move out of their own expertise once again.
The size of the egg, about the size of a Turkeys egg, leaves me with the opinion it may be a Dromaeosaurus, a Turkey sized Dinosaur. Further extraction, if done, will tell in time.
Before we go further here is a little about Dinosaur eggs down loaded from the internet.
They were all oviparous, meaning they reproduced through eggs formed in the mother and laid on land to hatch. Although known since the 1920s, renewed interest in the 1970s meant more than 200 sites world wide have been discovered where nest and eggs have survived the millennia. Even dinosaur embryos have been identified according to species.
Here are some big words for you to look and remember.
Dinosaur eggshells are valuable Paleobiological and Paleoenviromental indicators and have Biogeochemical significance. This is based on eggshell structure, they contain Amino acids, oxygen carbon isotopes and trace elements.
Eggs are body fossils; Nests are trace fossils. The shell is calcite or aragonite crystals perpendicular to the shell membrane surface. This is, as stated before the squamatic layer.
Acidic conditions can dissolve the eggshell carbonate leaving the squamatic layer intact.
With our eggs we are lucky as silt sediment is ideal for shape retention. Soft tissues are a feature of our egg preservation. As 823 species of dinosaur have been recorded, why can not our eggs be slightly different? Than any found so far.
Dinosaur egg number two was nearly ruined for the supposed outer coating of sand I was removing to get to the white eggshell, was the calcitic shell. The white, the membrane or squamatic layer. I ceased just in time, although the calcite layer is a lot thinner now than it was. A presumed egg of Ankylosauridae Genus, probably a Nodosaur as other material from this dinosaur have been recovered over the years from this vicinity.
The circumference is 293mm (11.5″) more spheroid than oval. Almost perfect, the egg had a break in the outer shell which allowed the interior to be explored for an embryo. Although no embryo had begun to form, to our amazement and delight the yolk appears to be in the center. In my somewhat extensive files I can only find one instance of this occurring.
Weighing precisely 2kg. As of now, the millennia of dark patina taken off, the pores of the shell are visible. Along the edges where opened, the shell thickness is visible enough to see and examine. I am told it is just a ball of rock of no scientific value from our experts?.
Perhaps this is why no dinosaur eggs have been found up till now in this country. Our experts would not recognize one if they fell over it.
Over seas the help is more positive. “You may have a hard time selling the idea of it being a yolk, but it sure looks like it.” It would be the ultimate soft fossil find ever, if true.
Over the years great changes have been made to the roads and landscape in this region.
On the down side thousands of acres of native bush have given way to vast pine forests.
One of the heaviest rain storms in 10,000 years hit the area raising the Te Hoe river bed up to 20 meters. Huge lineal slips with 2,000 year old forests still proudly standing slid down into the valley (One so large as to be visible from space.) as tons of water seeped through to the bedrock. Creating what is known as a greasy back which let the whole side of the mountain go.
Imagine going to a water park and riding one of the steepest water slides. Replace your body with a ton of rock and it will slide as easy as you did.
Trees still standing litter the valley floor in places, creating a buried forest with bare trunks and limbs reaching up in surrender, pleading for help.
Tons of fossils found, some cut and packed for transport, disappeared as our stream raged. Stripping banks for kilometers of all scrub and bush. Burying beaches under tons of mud and pumice. Road damage was so great we could not get back to the fossils for six long months.
On the up side.
Many more fossils long buried under age old beaches, surfaced, replacing those lost. Travel along the stream bed was easier as ancient log jams vanished. Best of all, the road, mainly because of the pine forests ,was updated to two wheel drive access.
Water levels had risen close to the site cabins but the only damage was some sinkage of the stream side of the logging pad we had leveled and built on. After repairing out water supply as the flood took all of our piping we were back in business.
Page thirteen
Many types of cretaceous fossils are found from this Mangahouanga stream area.
Going around schools and various other organizations I give lectures on all interesting finds.
One of the main fossils I take to show is a split down through the middle, large fish skull. A fearsome denizen of the sea. It could open its maw extra wide to devour much larger than it self. In a half concretion lying bone side up it was picked up individually by two overseas palaeontologists and one local, Four of us counting me. Disregarded as a tangle of fossilized wood it was dropped back onto the beach. All of us walking on seeking the best.
With me was my niece and her family from Waihi, carrying a corocoid I had found. I tended to ignore her picking up the so called wood on the way back “What is this?” she asked.
“Just a tangle of wood, leave it there”. I replied. As she dropped it back, I started on.
Something said, go back and look again, It is to even for wood. I listened to the voice of experience, went back, chipping a small section free with my rock hammer.
“I am wrong that is bone and that is the inside of a skull”. I said happily. “Thank you for bringing my attention back to it.” Packing it back to H.Q. I was laughed at for wasting time on common wood. “We all saw that, just rubbish.”
“Then I will keep it”, I replied, scraping mud from around some teeth. This brought a different response, they even chipped a small section of bone off. It was so hard to believe.
If experts in the field walk away from such as this, what hope is there of finding anything for those who learn from books.
At the Otane school one morning, the headmaster leaning against the door, was so fascinated by the talk and the children’s reaction to it all, asked me to stay for lunch and repeat the lecture to the rest of the school. This I did. I always leave one particular fossil to the last as a finale to the lesson. This, being carefully washed and scrubbed before hand, is brought out of the box and held for all to see close up.
“Did you know some Dinosaur fossils, although 70 million years old may still taste of the original beast?” I ask the audience. “No? well this one does”. Licking the face of the rock.
“Anyone like to try the taste?”. Needless to say there are always a few game participants
come forward with smiles on their face, willing to lick happily at the fossil
“Did you taste anything?”. Most say no. The odd one yes. Then I tell them it is a coprolite which is another name for fossilized dinosaur poo.
They may not remember most of the talk but none ever forget they watched their friends lick Dinosaur poo.
WIN SOME LOSE SOME.
Win some lose some, in Te Papa is one of the best Plesiosaur skulls found anywhere in the world. Reg. No CD 425. At the time of the finding there were only 8 others in a similar condition anywhere in the world, Different to the rest, it was given its own Genus and type.
The type species was named as a tribute to Mr. I.W,Keyes in recognition of his unstinted assistance and review of papers over 15 years and for his contribution to New Zealand Palaeontoloy.
Found in a large boulder, far to large for normal methods. The boulder which had the posterior (rear) end of the skull exposed on the external surface was broken apart with explosives. Consequently fractured and collected in a number of pieces. After extraction, taking months of work, given up on by one and taken over by another the skull was reassembled much like a jigsaw puzzle. Given the name Tuarangi (Maori for ancient) saurus.
We had won one.
Away from the Mangahouanga stream, though seemingly unspoiled bush lies a cut and well marked track. Tree Ferns line parts with a delightful avenue where if you looked close enough you may see often Ruru the Morepork spending the day. Undulating until the last steep descent, with ladders in place, lies “Top Beach”. Many wonderful specimens have been collected from this area and many more have been left for budding palaeontologists to look at and wonder.
One year “Claim Jumpers” swept down from Auckland on a prospecting raid. Intercepted and escorted out by the forest manager, we found later a prime specimen had gone with them leaving evidence of their predations at the bottom of a pool.
Returning to H.Q. one evening from Top Beach after a hard days work collecting I was Tail end Charlie of our small, very tired party. Every one was carrying a full pack of recovery gear and fossils. Light fading fast and a good half hour to base meant no delay.I was tired and my pack was heavy. Riding high on my shoulders for comfort. Walking nearer to the wall of the bush edge than usual I caught my foot on a wedge shape section of sandstone going down hard.. It took an effort to regain my footing as the rest of the party carried on.
Once on my feet I glanced down at the offending slab. Too my surprise the sharp edge of the wedge showed on each side a row of interlocking Plesiosaur teeth. They could only be attached to the jaws of the reptile. The jaws hopefully attached to the skull. Dilemma, I called to the others to signify my find. “It is to late leave it till tomorrow” was the reply. Of course they were right. To make it easy to find the next day I stood it against a rock wall and walked on. Next day arrived as it usually does. In a hurry I retraced my steps to my prize.
Down the ladders, through the stream, along the boulder beds. Not long now. Round the last curve and!!!!!!! There it was. A huge landslide, covering my treasure, the boulder bed and everything in sight. Trees, shrubs, rocks and pumice meters high. Disaster, there would be days of work to uncover the slab with the risk of more slips to follow It is still there buried for now.
We lost one.
Over the years large numbers of fossil terrestrial and marine vertebrates, invertebrates. Plant and insect remains have been collected by this talented team of amateurs.
These collections have made the Mangahouanga stream known world wide through the new Genera and new species described from them. Mosasaurs were numerous as the amount of remains recovered are equal if not a little more than Plesiosaur. A large Mosasaur skull, equivalent to some of the best found anywhere was a spectacular find
In 1982 an articulated skull with four cervical (neck) vertebrae attached were collected from locally derived boulders of the Maungataniwha sand stone. Different to any other found it was deemed to be a first of its type. It was given the name “Rikisauris Tehoensis” Riki a maori word for small, sauris, as by now you know, Greek for lizard. Its specific name was after the
Te Hoe valley, the area from which it was collected.
These are mentioned for we seem to have a propensity to find much which is the first for
New Zealand, if not the world. A partial illium of a Dryosaurus- like Ornithopod Dinosaur represented another first showing the diversity of Dinosaurs we had roaming our backyards.
It is hard to believe, looking at a sheer wall of stone over 800 meters in height, with ominous black clouds shedding a veil of rain, countless waterfalls cascading down studded with rainbows, lit by a westering sun from that part of the sky, that this area 70million years ago was a coastal region.
Here, down in the valley the Te Hoe river rushes through impassable gorges to its meeting with the mighty Mohaka river. Once through what we call “The Gate” the TeHoe brushes its skirts against a sloping wall of moss that looks like a giant carpet hung down to dry.
In places huge slabs of rock have been dislodged, forcing the river to pass under instead of over. Occasionally a boulder containing fossils can be seen in the turbulent water. On the true right, looming over all is the great sharks tooth of rock known as “Te Kootis lookout.” Below the gorge section the river becomes quieter, more open to fishing.
It was here my first fossil of the dinosaur age was acquired although I did not know this for many years. My youngest son gathered a roll of stone about the size of my thumb. The core, showing at both ends, what appeared to be a hollow bone. Museum inquiries resolved nothing at this time. It was put aside as a curiosity.
In November 2002 with my increased knowledge of fossils I looked again with new respect.
Ground the casing down, coated the ends and began acid immersion.
The result? A short pterodon wing bone.
It was found not to far from where in the sixties I was fishing below Glen Falls in the Mohaka.
Climbing to get round a bluff I could see below me on a section of river bed washed clean to the bedrock a series of tracks running for about a chain in the sandstone. When I climbed down I investigated these prints. Not having any idea of dinosaurs I considered them Moa tracks. For they were three toed with claws.
Now today I will always wonder. The tracks finished under the bluff so one day someone
Sometime, may come across them again.
Earlier I mentioned the tail bone, one of the first found. In this I tell of the finding.
All was silent in the vast expanse of the forest, everything was still, even the giant Totaras seemed to pause their everlasting rustle of foliage. On the floor beneath, crouched over a large pile of rotting fern and scrub, a large female Theropod was watching over her precious clutch of eggs. They were close to hatching and she was worried. The huge earth tremor, which unknown to her, the whole world had felt, had just passed.
Moments later a monstrous blast of super heated air, preceding a gigantic wave of water and sludge swept the land clean as the planet realigned itself into a new orbit. Hit by a huge Asteroid, the world as the Theropod knew it was gone forever. Her body torn to pieces by the maelstrom was deposited in the mud of a new ocean. By a freak of nature one of the nearly hatched eggs surviving, complete with chicken lay buried, along with one of her tail bones and several toe bones. Ever finer silt permeated through the pores of the egg melding with the partly cartilagic and ossified bones of the baby dinosaur.
Millennia past, great land upheavals occur as the Teutonic Plates of the planet assumed their present position. The Theropod bones and egg were now a long way from the ocean, both in distance and in height.
The caudal, or tail bone was the first to be found and removed from its ages long resting place from what is now known as the Maungataniwha sandstone. This block of bedrock lay in the Mangahouanga stream bed until spotted by the eagle eyed hunters looking for marine fossils. Thought to be a Plesiosaur vertebrae, which, normally is as long as it is wide, it was miscalculated in its length cutting it free from the stone. This resulted in a second cut which left the object in two halves. Obviously not a Plesiosaur it lay around until a similar one was seen in Brisbane Australia. Identified at last as a dinosaur bone in 1981.
A scientific paper was written and presented at a Symposium of Palaeontology and Geology experts from around the world in Wellington. It was greeted with silence, mutters of disbelief were heard, New Zealand never had dinosaurs, impossible. Perhaps this bunch of amateurs salted the mine with a bone from overseas. Not until more Dinosaur bones were found were these sceptics finally silenced. Much later a relatively large half of a phalanx or toe bone was gathered,
Matching both Theropods or Ornithopods it could have belonged to several species of dinosaur. I like to think it belonged to the one in our story. There are several more awaiting collection.
The area from which these Cretaceous fossils have been discovered now extends far beyond the Mangahouanga stream site to over many hectares of mountain range , streams and creeks. One such small watercourse struggles through scrub and forest to join the Te Hoe well down stream from the usual sites.
Two pig hunters, following an old logging track to the river found, where a culvert had been washed away years before, it necessary to work there way down and across an enormous tangle of flood debris. Returning later in the day after a unsuccessful hunt, a rugby ball sized rock was seen with what looked like bone on one end. Knowing of my interest in this type of find it was carried the three kilometers back to their transport. No mean feat for it weighed over 10 kilos. Back at H.Q. it was placed on the verandah to await my inspection.
When I eventually got to see it I recognized a section of rib as being terrestrial. Pleasantly surprised I took it to a sink bench and scrubbed it. Was it?? Could it possibly be???. The shape of it suggested a humendous egg. Many more bone sections appeared. Black colour stood out from the grey of the stone. If it was an egg there had to be eggshell or it was, as stated before just a collection of bones.
A 5mm thick line of what could be eggshell was showing along one side. Calcite or calcitic shell. Home to the workshop where it was closely checked with a large magnifying lens. The bones looked carved from sand. With them were a few odd tubular burrows produced by “Cerianthus” sea worms. Placed in 10% aecetic acid for a period of days and then cleaned off a small Theropod metatarsal (hand bone) was showing. Definitely a Theropod dinosaur. The muddy cream line down the side showed it to be eggshell not a line of calcite.
It is an egg. Obvious Genus Theropod. Species indeterminate. The sand carved appearance of the bones meant they were between Cartilage and Ossification or the hardening of the cellular structure. A very large Theropod egg it could be anyone of several species from which we have recovered bones.
But until proved different I am going to presume it is our fictional Theropod egg once more seeing the light of day. In consultation with an overseas palaeontologist the egg is slowly being dismantled to determine the actual species. Making sure we save the existing eggshell.
After 5 immersions in acid it is still large.
Oval length 36cm. Diameter at center 55cm. The eggshell is 5mm thick,23cm long and 7cm wide. Losing 2mm of stone each time it goes in acid it is going to take many months to finally hatch this chicken.
Evening, the sun shaving the top of Wharerangiora the highest peak in the region. Shadows on the stream bed. One third of the way up the side of the valley sunlight. Golden light high lit a large half concretion half the size of a small car, reflecting off the polished core of the rock.
This intrigued me as it was only minutes from the cabins. Why had no one seen it before?.
Loaded with a pack of fossils I continued on and up to the cabins. No others were there yet, back from what is known as the “S Bend” the road parallelling the upper reaches of the stream. Only taking my rock hammer and a short length of rope to assist in climbing to the fossil I returned. Although not that far up it was a solid twenty minutes of scrambling, first up a wet and slippery slab of rock, then working from tree trunk to trunk. Making my way up and along to the narrow terrace where the object of my search stood.
Arriving I had to look hard, for now, with no sun on ,it looked like an old tree growing against a rock face. Walking to it I had to look up for it was taller than myself. The fossil, with its unusual texture, had my curiosity at a high level. Wood or bone?. At this stage dinosaur fossils were still a dream of the future. Getting darker as the light faded and the shadows increased I thought, a log of wood and returned to base.
Great excitement greeted me. The other team members had discovered a Mosasaur skull and in the morning would require my assistance to recover this. Believe it or not this took my find right out of my mind. What was a log compared to this.
Karearea, the bush hawk, flashed by chasing his lunch Kereru the native pigeon. Kereru, noting a dark patch in a wall of green flew low and fast. Unfortunately the dark patch was a window in my cabin, Arriving at the weekend we were greeted by glass shards and feathers everywhere. Of the frantic pigeon there was no sign. It had found its way out through the gaping hole. The years had flown as fast as the birds. 1983 saw the great rain storm come and go. !995 came with a flash of long forgotten memories That rock on the terrace. Now we had dinosaur fossils that fossil log?? Took on a far greater significance. Lets go look.
Look we did, no sign of it. In fact, no terrace even. With a team of six we quartered up and down the heights, up and back a kilometre of stream, Nothing.
“Wait it was there, no I am not crazy it was there.” And yes I was sober my imagination’s not that good.
A concretion that large can not just vanish. There is only one place it could go. The vibrations of the 1983 flood have sent it down into the deep pool below in the stream. O.K. then we must empty the pool of all pumice and rocks. “Whose we? Have you any idea what that involves?, how deep that pool is?”.
Reasoning did not work. Determination did. Working waist deep in a pool, the home of one of the largest eels ever seen in this stream had its moments “I will work the winch, it is your rock you go in. Of course I am not afraid of eels the waters cold”.
It took the first two days to drag a huge rock through the water to a flat stretch of beach with a three ton Turfa winch. Not the one we want, but still with a row of bone showing.
“It is only Plesiosaur, leave it there.” Two smaller bone rocks were next to be manhandled from the water. This left cubic meters of pumice to be shovelled into the main stream to clear down to bed rock.
Hour after hour ,shovel full by shovel full tossed into the main stream flow. Lean on the shovel in the time honoured manner of the old navvy. Watch your mate leave the water jet propelled by the resident monster swimming between shovel and bare legs. “Scared/? of course not. You shovel ,the waters still to cold”.
Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!. A large flat something is beginning to show. A steel probe worked around the edges confirms the size, this could be it. Hang a muslin bag full of cat food at the far end of the pool to entice the resident out of the way and mates back into the water.
Clear water, clear rock. No fossil but the indentation showing clearly where it had been. The fall into the raging waters had dislodged our prize springing it free from its millions of years resting place sending it who knew where. Grabbing the use of a passing log skidder we succeeded in turning the slab over in the faint hope it was on the other side. No such luck.
All we managed was to spend another hour or two winching a stuck skidder back on to solid ground. The fossil long gone either whole or in pieces down stream.
This would appear to be the end of the story, days of hard work for nothing. BUT, months later at the ford a small section was recovered. Our long perseverance was vindicated. It was part of a extremely large dinosaur limb bone. Not log of wood as I had thought originally.
Extrapolated it showed the diameter of the section found to have been 254mm or 10 inches
With a radius of 127mm or five inches. There is no saying as yet as to what part of the limb it was from. The weakest part would be the shaft. Whatever, it is from a very large member of the dinosaur family. More of the shattered remains are sure to come to light eventually.
Spring, the morning warming, the air still. High above the bush line comes the screeeech of a Long Tail Cuckoo being harassed by a pair of Tuis . Chasing it out of their territory, keeping it well away from the nest. A breeze stirs the top of the Manuka. A pair of Fantails throw themselves into the Manuka to further disturb the nights occupants, Young Fantails flutter and swoop to gather breakfast supplied by doting parents.
At H.Q. a long line, small block and tackle, a light net are placed in a pack along with the usual rock hammer, ropes, sacking for packing and last of all lunch.
We are away to recover a slab of stone with Mososaur vertebrae liberally spread over the surface in full view. A fantastic specimen. Ropes were needed to safely descend into the gorge and climb back. The long line stretched across the width had a pulley in the middle through which was threaded the line of the block and tackle.Clearing the slab from the surrounding beach material, securely wrapped and placed in the net.
Back up top to pull on the hoisting line the theory being, the rock would lift to the pulley then dragged up the line to safe ground. So much for theory. In practice it was almost a total failure. Yes, it did lift but not until it was dragged through the water over the boulders and up against the cliff. Several times only the safety rope stopped us from joining the slab the hard way. The rope was to light, cutting into the flesh of our hands it had to be let go. What took minutes of lifting took a second to return to the bottom.
What was needed was good old dinosaur ingenuity. A pole was cut and clove hitched to the line. Theory, put a man on each side as a brace of horse power and walk up the steep climb.
Like a Military Two Step at the local hop. Two up, one back. Down on your knees, crawl, the same,Two up one back. What was needed was someone with a stock whip shouting Haw! Haw! Or was it to be Ha Ha. Surely it was days later? The tip of the rock appeared over the lip. With the pole tied on the top side of two small tree trunks to hold it while the cord was secured to another. So far, so good. Half the day gone, half the job done.
Spring, the morning warming, the air still. High above the bush line comes the screeeech of a Long Tail Cuckoo being harassed by a pair of Tuis . Chasing it out of their territory, keeping it well away from the nest. A breeze stirs the top of the Manuka. A pair of Fantails throw themselves into the Manuka to further disturb the nights occupants, Young Fantails flutter and swoop to gather breakfast supplied by doting parents.
At H.Q. a long line, small block and tackle, a light net are placed in a pack along with the usual rock hammer, ropes, sacking for packing and last of all lunch.
We are away to recover a slab of stone with Mosasaur vertebrae liberally spread over the surface in full view. A fantastic specimen. Ropes were needed to safely descend into the gorge and climb back. The long line stretched across the width had a pulley in the middle through which was threaded the line of the block and tackle.Clearing the slab from the surrounding beach material, securely wrapped and placed in the net.
Back up top to pull on the hoisting line the theory being, the rock would lift to the pulley then dragged up the line to safe ground. So much for theory. In practice it was almost a total failure. Yes, it did lift but not until it was dragged through the water over the boulders and up against the cliff. Several times only the safety rope stopped us from joining the slab the hard way. The rope was to light, cutting into the flesh of our hands it had to be let go. What took minutes of lifting took a second to return to the bottom.
What was needed was good old dinosaur ingenuity. A pole was cut and clove hitched to the line. Theory, put a man on each side as a brace of horse power and walk up the steep climb.
Like a Military Two Step at the local hop. Two up, one back. Down on your knees, crawl, the same,Two up one back. What was needed was someone with a stock whip shouting Haw! Haw! Or was it to be Ha Ha. Surely it was days later? The tip of the rock appeared over the lip. With the pole tied on the top side of two small tree trunks to hold it while the cord was secured to another. So far, so good. Half the day gone, half the job done.
Pull it on to firm ground and strap it to a pack frame.Stretcher it up to the level track and recover all the materials used to get it. What now?, do we run a wire to the road, slide it along from point to point or try and stretcher it right out..
“No way, cut me a walking stick, strap it to my back. Get me to my feet and get out of the way”. To the side I heard. “he is simple, not Samson”. “Bet he cannot do it”.
I made a tentative step, then another. “You two go ahead and place a rope down one side and up the other at the narrow gut, If I get that far I will need it”.
“That or an ambulance”. Was the reply.
Humming one step at a time, this ambulating, cross country, two footed loader progressed ever so carefully to the point where the ropes were positioned to help.
No one was there. They were both out of sight, not wanting to witness a crushed and broken body lying still in the gut. Fooled them, hand over hand up the rope and down on my knees.
“Get this damn thing off me I need to rest, rest, rest.”.
“Well if you can carry it this far, I can take it to the road”. On the back of the new two legged Clydesdale it took off down the slope Moments later a heavy thud and gasp shook the forest. The new pack horse, flat on the ground, unable to move with the great weight on his shoulders. O.K. unload the unfortunate. Get him to his feet, let him try again. This time he made it to the cabin. Becoming the proud owner of a photo showing him bent over with the great weight on his back and a great story of how he carried it so tenaciously for so long.
This fossil made headlines in the national papers by appearing mysteriously on the steps of the back door of the Auckland Museum without any indication of where it came from.
Now you know more about it than they do.
Riroriro,Grey Warbler, and his partner had reared their first family for the year. Plenty of time for another clutch. They did not know an unusual bird was to take an unfair advantage of their good nature. An interloper from the east decided this was just the right nest to lay her single egg. The first confirmed sighting in 50 years of an Oriental Cuckoo. Laying her single egg among the Riorios she went on her merry way. Eventually hatching, the stranger threw the owners family to their deaths outside.
The cuckoo chick was large and hungry forcing its foster parents to work from daylight to dark to keep its voracious appetite quiet. In time it began to be too much, the two Grey Warblers approached the human occupants of the near by cabin. We knew all was not well when two absolutely fearless birds came within two feet of us, forcing this strange bird even closer. Not being entirely stupid we knew they were asking our help in feeding this monster.
Standing fascinated by this obvious plea for help I moved to the bush where the Cuckoo, even more fearless ,came and sat on my outstretched hand. Closing my hand around and holding it still I called for the camera. Photos taken the bird was returned to the bush.
We could not help, this was way out side of our expertise. The Grey Warblers had had enough and must have given up. Three days later we found the Cuckoo dead in the grass.
The photos taken were sent to Ron Scarlett who identified the bird. His request to keep the carcass, we only have one other skeleton was to late.
Nests in this area were nothing new.70 million years before, the birds in the trees, the dinosaurs on the ground. I have been told by an overseas expert all our Cretaceous fossils are of marine extraction and as dinosaurs did not lay eggs in the ocean we could not possibly have found any dinosaur eggs. Again so much for expertise. When the great tidal waves encircled the earth, here in Hawkes Bay nests were covered in silt from the old ocean beds.
The presumed Nodosaur egg we have had not been in the Mangahouanga for too many years as the condition was superb when found. This means it was eroded from bedrock reasonably close i.e. within 2 or 3 kilometers.
Going through my photographic files which, after 30 years are very extensive I found, after computer enhancing ,a probable nesting site.
This awaits further exploration. It will not be a picnic outing for amateurs. The eggs?? Are protruding from a sheer wall of sandstone above a deep pool at the foot of a water chute.
Abseiling with hammer and specimen bag , a raft in the pool below. Even 5 years ago, a piece of cake. But now with my ever increasing age, more like crumbs left over from life’s breakfast.
I can not stress enough that soft tissue does fossilize. Especially in this section on Sharks.
Soft tissue is fossilized and preserved with remarkable detail when the organism is rapidly buried soon after, or before death. Evidence can be seen in the well preserved caterpillar found among others from the Mangahouanga stream site.
Shark vertebrae are composed of cartilage, as are the rest of its bones. Virtually all publications state that because of this, only sharks teeth survive as fossils from the Cretaceous
Era. In my collection are three specimen stone blocks all containing shark material. The largest block contains partially extracted, six vertebrae. More are embedded along with ribs.
SHARKS TEETH ??
A prominent New Zealand palaeontologist, who, incidentally, gave our small unit more encouragement and assistance than any other, wrote a paper on 64 cretaceous sharks teeth in the collection of the then D.S.I.R. (Dominion science institute research.)
One of our team who specialized in cretaceous sharks teeth sent him, if memory serves me right, five or six hundred he had collected. Most, but not all, from our site.
I personally sent to Wellington a slab of bed rock containing close on a hundred on the surface of the specimen.
Many varieties of shark species were represented in this total, from small sand sharks to the large White Pointer. Sharks go back as far in time as the dinosaurs. Probably some were even as large especially the Great Whites.
Down the precipitous cliffs of the western Maungataniwha native forest a road was formed using hundreds of tons of explosives by the Tawa Timber Company. Opening up a huge area previously inaccessible to all but a hardy few hunter, prospectors and timber cruisers.
A news paper report of the day stated. Enough timber to last for a hundred years of housing needs has been occasioned for Hawkes Bay by this innovative action. (It ran out in 40 years.)
The road meant access for many, including oil geologists, one of which in his report said, “Cretaceous fossils in brackish water”. Later I saw on the internet where it was claimed he was the first to find dinosaur fossils. Untrue, he saw the remains of marine reptiles, there in the hundreds. He certainly found the site. Actual terrestrial dinosaur remains were discovered some years later and only confirmed as such by over seas experts. We had none.
When we arrived to follow up this report in 1973 the logging was even then on the decline.
The forest was alive with native birds of all types. Even the presumed extinct North Island Saddle Back. At night Moreporks could be heard competing with the boooom of not so far off ground parrots. Possums by the dozens kept us awake most nights. Feeding,Fighting, Fornicating for hours in the Wineberry thickets on the other side of the stream across from our base camp.
To begin with living was primitive. Cooking on an open fire outside with a sheet of flat iron for a stove. Native bats would arrive quite often, swooping and zooming for the myriad of night flyers attracted to the light of the fire. Life became better when cabins were built, water laid on, flush toilet. Solar power for lighting. Gas for cooking, stoves for heat and hot water.
This made little impact on the local wild life. Deer used a lean to added on for sleeping quarters in the cold of winter. A pair of Kiwis nested under the floor of my cabin waking us all with the males come home call half an hour before daylight each morning to his mate.
Logging finished, meant only main access roads at this time saw any maintenance. This created a new breed of fossil hunters. Road gangs. Adept with pick, shovel, wheelbarrows, chainsaws and bribery. “You come and help and you can look for venison when finished”.
After one major set back, a storm closing the roads for six months, we investigated a new area. Streams on the western face of the range had been cleared of all log jams and bush tangles leaving clear streams and creeks to walk down.
At the foot of a majestic waterfall, lying on a bed of pumice sand lay the tail of a Plesiosaur freshly washed out of the surrounding mountain side. Partially eroded from the stone but still encased in yellow cretaceous clay,
The last nine caudal vertebrae, five partial ribs and a bone from its flipper. So wonderful to behold I carved a swimming Plesiosaur in the blank section of the slab. To see it today you must visit the Natural History section of the Victoria University.
Checking another creek in the same vicinity a row of cervical (neck) vertebrae could be seen protruding from more of the yellow clay. These appeared to be free of all sandstone around them. Exposed to the air for the first time in millennia, when I came back two weeks later to dig them out they had already begun to disintegrate into powder. Dug out they were hastily immersed in a plastic resin which soaked through the cellular structure to preserve them.
Seven vertebrae, free of stone on one end. The other, a dozen ribs had been washed together in a small heap. These were lying on and in sandstone. Remarkably all bones were still white as though the reptile had only been dead months instead of millions of years.
The same creek, under a small cascade produced a juvenile limb bone. No stone, no clay. Completely washed clean belonging to a Mosasaur. This was the fossil hunters dream.
A museum piece all ready for display, all you had to do was pick it up.
What wonders may still lie buried in these ranges awaiting time to reveal.
Reading in a learned treatise on our native birds I was surprised to see that Kereru our native pigeon were never seen to flock. They only raised one chick, (I have seen three in a nest.)
Therefore only three would be seen at one time. Whoever wrote this twaddle had obviously never been for long periods of time in the densely forested Whirinaki / Maungataniwha bush.
First time we saw them in a flock was an afternoon while travelling back down the Te Hoe river bed from fossil prospecting in the area known as Loonies creek. To begin with, yes there was two, circling, playing chasing in the sky above us. More and more joined them thoroughly enjoying the late afternoon warmth. I counted seventeen as they showed us an aerial ballet.
As we left the river bed my companion said “There is more coming in I count twenty three”.
I could not keep count as they swirled, twisting above the bush and river.
Second time, weather, warmth, sky conditions the same. We were not far from the junction of the S bend and Te Hoe roads walking back to our transport. In the branches of a large dead Matai tree I counted nine of the lovely birds. “Look there is more,there and there,”
We counted thirty four, none flying, all moving from branch to branch, tree to tree watching and following our progress to the vehicle. I like to think they were as curious about us as we were of them.
This particular day I was carrying a water worn fossil rock with the contents you could see
looking quite different in the way the cells of the bone were formed. They were larger, not as tightly formed as in marine reptile bones. In the workshop extra care was taken as the eroded bone was worked on. It had been a hollow bone which meant to me dinosaur. Only the head? And two thirds? of the shaft were left making it awkward to assess its probable full length
Taken to Australia it could not be identified in Brisbane. May be a marine illium? Do not know. Returned home, once again searching through books and hours on the net. The only close match of any description I could find was of a Theropod carnivore Illium? Or the end of a Humerus?.
The final answer is wide open for discussion if and when I can find an expert. But I firmly believe it is a DINOSAUR bone.
Thruuup Thruuup Thruuup. The sound of the rotas echoed though the valley. In stone clearing three deer, alert to the sound of danger, bounded into thick bush along the gorge top.
Hairpin bend, or as we call it “S” bend threw up a thick cloud of red smoke from a flare guiding the Helicopter into a landing.
It began months before when forest owners Carter Holt were approached to assist in recovering large blocks of stone full of fossil specimens. Too large for normal handling deep in the bottom of the earthquake fault of the Mangahouanga stream bed. They agreed to cover the cost of Helicopter hire for a short period.
The first decision had to be which was going to get priority as there were dozens of prospective candidates. Then, each checked to ensure the bush was open for the machine to operate in perfect safety. This eliminated many, but several fit into all criterior needed for success.
A cargo net, six one tonne fertiliser bags , were acquired, put to use as packaging. Off to Taupo to arrange the best size aircraft and experienced crew with a tentative date. How heavy? You must be capable of lifting a maximum of one tonne.
Ground crews, at least two for each lift point to hook on. Armed with smoke flares so as to be found from above. Unhookers to watch precision landing of packages on waiting trailers Video cameras at all points of interest. No problem assembling teams, there were plenty of volunteers.
A cloud of pumice dust preceded the landing on the small grass clearing. Introductions all round. The chopper emptied of everything movable, including the rear seating.
“It as a long way down there, our cable might just not reach”.
“No bother, we have another fifty meters of plastic sheathed cable on hand for you”.
It was a long way down. Far below us, the Helicopter, looking and sounding the size of a Bumble bee, disappeared below the tree line into the vastness of the gorge. Anxious moments before it appeared with the first. Hanging at the end of the line was the cargo net with the heaviest of the fossil rocks. Apparently it caught a little on a tree branch at the beginning of the lift and a small concretion was lost through the mesh into the bush when it pulled free startling the ground crew.
An hour later, all lifts on trailers, the helicopter took off back to Taupo. The pilot thanking us for the opportunity to have been part of a unique experience.
The rest of us, a picnic lunch, then homeward bound with our precious cargo.
This had been the second use of a Helicopter, the first not very successful. It had lifted the first specimen a meter or two off the stream bed and that was that. At best it had moved it away from the main water flow of the stream. However all was not lost, four or five lighter were extracted from their ancient resting place and delivered to awaiting transport.
The third lift was a surprise effort. We were told a heavy lift helicopter would be in the area lifting logs in a few days, weather permitting. In the evening on its way back it would pass along our stream. If it could find us it would do a lift dropping it at it at the cabin. No charge.
It would not spend any time looking for us, if we were not ready or seen, it would continue on. A rapid descent into a remote area saw three of us plus one tonne bag and cargo net spend a morning packing and strapping fossils. These were from a beach inaccessible except by ropes, almost impossible to recover by back packing.
About four in the afternoon of a day of showers we were not really expecting anything to occur when a vehicle arrived. The forest manager and a very fit timber man with a radio to talk the helicopter to us. Go go go, from the road down to the gorge, down stream to the lifting site took 12 minutes. A full length sprawl into icy waters. Dragged out by the timber man in his spiked boots. “Come on come on don’t lie there, times awasting”. Down the rope to the beach. Sore hands from rope burns ignored.
Into the radio “ok we are on site on your way”. In a very few minutes we could hear the chopper above the trees “You are nearly above us, a little more.” I could not see a thing for the swirling leaves from the down draft. “That’s it drop the hook.” Down through the overhanging branches, a bloody great hook just missed us. “You’ve got it, lift and go.” Up the net went. “Come on lets go the chopper will wait for his radio but not to happily.” What took 12 minutes down took over 20 minutes back.
“Leave me, you go on I will be alright.”
“No way I’ll see you safe at the road.” A lovely concession to my age and fitness.
Road ahead, vehicle waiting and gone in seconds. Shortly chopper overhead on it’s way south. If we had had to pay it would have cost us $60 dollars a minute flying time. Than you Carters.
Just down stream from where three creeks merge were the same number of boulders each containing fossils. We were asked if we could possibly collect these and bring them complete to home base. Two had Plesiosaur bones, the third a dinosaur vertebrae. Each could be lifted but only just. We were not overly enthusiastic about this. Nearest point for 4×4 quad bike was not quite a kilometer over rugged boulder beds
Discussing the methods to be used brought to mind the offer of a farmer who owned a small helicopter to assist with something different to the usual things he was asked to do.
Approached he was more than happy to oblige. On the day one of us flew with him to the site and he checked the size of each “Sure. I will handle those, one at a time.”
It was no effort for the machine. Delivering one whilst the next was packed. Then the third. Last of all the passenger. Wonderful, in an hour what would have taken two days of sweat and toil was done
When eventually worked on the dinosaur vertebrae was, unfortunately only half there. The first Plesiosaur bone were 90% eroded away, not worth persevering with. The last made it all worth while. It was the largest Plesiosaur Corocoid (shoulder bone) ever recorded in New Zealand..