Land Dinosaurs
NEW ZEALANDS PROBABLE ABELISAURIDAE / CERATOSAUR CLADE
INTRODUCTION
The Mangahouanga valley stream in New Zealand is unique in its variety of terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the late Cretaceous
This paper concentrates on the many unusual fossils recovered from small phosphoric concretions formed in fresh water streams and washed into an estuary by periodic flooding. For many years they proved almost impossible to work on and extract their fascinating fossils which 90% contained. No two specimen concretions were ever of identical composition and hardness. After years of experimentation phosphoric acid used to clean concrete appeared to be the answer, although it was noted to have the tendency to strip the enamel from the Dentine of teeth.
GEOLOGY
The Maungataniwha site is a member of the Tahora Formation exposed in quite a large area of surrounding watersheds leading into the Mangahouanga stream bed. The knowledgeable extent of the fossiliferous area extends as far as Camp Creek in the west. More information may be ascertained from the paper by Ralph E Molnar, Trevor Crabtree and Joan Wiffen at the commencement of this paper.
DESCRIPTIONS.
Most of these specimens require Cordata registration to be officially accepted. Unfortunately much is as rare as being the first seen and found anywhere in the world As far as I as I can find out with my limited access to world papers. However, extensive internet enquiries, and medical professional discussions lead me to presume most of my findings are probably correct.
PRESERVATION
For some reason, probably from instant immersion in muddy flood waters almost Perfect preservation has been achieved. Especially in what we call the Impossible Fossil. An entire brain, NOT an endocast,
The following addendums set out my findings for your perusa.
ADDENDUM ONE
CRETACEOUS TERRESTRIAL DINOSAUR CADRE EGG
This egg (1st photo natural size) was discovered at mr 416473 Te Harato 260 v19.
The concretion had been split in two by its rough passage in the Mangahouanga stream bed. On the surface, easily discernable, was a cross section of a skull.
Egg shell could be seen along a leading edge, without this, it would have been only a collection of bones. On the obverse was what appeared to be a small section of fossilized wood. It was not, scraped to confirm it was seen to be a small Radius.
Remarkably, as the photo shows, preservation was so precise Marrow was seen to fill the core of the bone.
Intense scrutiny revealed the skull to be of terrestrial origin, mainly by the Fenestras and dagger like teeth.
In the official world, as usual, when amateurs find material such as this disbelief was considerable. From the south, “It is only a Fishhead in a sea shell”. From London. Believe it or not, only vegetation in a concretion.
I believed it not.. Therefore more work was done exposing other material.
ADDENDUM TWO This egg recovered from the same vicinity was at once recognized as Avian.. [...Flying Reptiles Page..]
ADDENDUM THREE
Palatea / This fossil is the pendulous fold of musculo-membranous tissue separating mouth-cavity from pharynx.
Pharynx / The cavity behind , and communicating with nose, mouth and larynx.
This fossil from its own Phosphoric Concretion in its entirety is slightly unusual as it did not need to be broken in half to find its contents.
Extracted with care with Phosphoric acid it was thought, considering how once again, the wonderful condition that the brain could have been still in place.
The Hawkes Bay Radiology unit made time to C.A.T. scan the specimen. They concurred it was without doubt a palate, with from where the neural spine was situated the odds were it was from a small reptile presumably Dinosaur.
Around the outside lie the Alveolus of the missing teeth. On the top, sections of the skull remain with the blank lower top showing in
X-rays as the brain cavity. Whilst the upper mouth is A1 above that pressure has distorted the skull.
ADDENDUM FOUR
THE IMPOSSIBLE FOSSIL.
So named for its incredible survival, both in preservation and extraction.
This remarkable object by all known perceptions should have been a collection of fine dust.
Little, if any was known about these fresh water concretions. The usual methods using glacial acetic acid did not work as no calcium was to be found in the matrix. Nobody else apart from us even had an interest in this work at this time. I decided to experiment using 10% Nitric acid, Broken in half to see what if anything was inside I chose two to work on.
Placed in a glass container the idea was to leave over night in the warm summer conditions. At daybreak I was advised I was needed to proceed to Auckland to exchange rental cars. This I did on my late arrival back I forgot the acid work, being busy with other vehicles took it out of my mind completely. Three days past and I thought of them.
In the first container lay a complete Radius and Ulna, carpals. Metacarpals and Phalanges of a very small Theropod Dinosaur. Immaculately preserved in all their pristine whiteness. Eureka! At last. The acid was removed and fresh water added to wash any traces of acid away. Came the mistake of a life time,
Instead of photographing as was I removed them in doing so they dissolved into fine white powder. Dismayed I checked the other container, no stone, only a small block of something. What was this and could I manage to keep it whole
With great trepidation it was flooded with an acid neutralizer
This worked, but what was it. one thing for sure, it was NOT bone.
Weeks turned into months. Overseas experts shrugged their shoulders “Do not know /can not tell”
Here at home a specialist to whom it was shown said, “If I did not know better I would say it could be a brain”
“That could be the Dur-A`M`ater i.e the dense tough membrane enveloping the brain and spinal cord. to cushion any shock against the skull”.
“It also appears to have the Ara`ch`noid membranes surrounding the brain and supporting blood vessels” The clincher would be to place it under a microscope at 200x and you should be able to see the thousands of neuron channels, if they are there you have a brain. They do appear to be there but I do not have the experience to be able to be sure.
ADDENDUM FIVE
Fresh water concretion, small. Broken in two as usual to ascertain if a fossil was present.
Yes, but what, Placed in 10% phosphoric acid. In this case checked but left to do its work. Two halves, is it just a Mollusc? No something odd.
There are large and small dinosaurs with hard round heads they used as weapons in the mating season.
This is possibly one such very small or juvenile of the PACHYCEPHALOSAUR CADRE
ADDENDUM FIVE / .2
Only another very small Dinosaur carried this ISCHIUM around in its hips as it went about its daily living which was not long THEROPODIA CADRE??
Measurement in m.m
ADDENDUM SIX
Phospheric concretion, this was found at site known as Three Creeks Te Haroto V18 mr 455 468
It lay around for two years or so in a box of unsplit concretions.
For the want of something better to work on without splitting I threw it in the Phospheric acid and let it burble to its hearts content. Eight weeks later this was the result. But again, what is it It took a while on the Web to track it down but at last I did It is the COCHLEA, spiral bone of the inner ear of a Dinosaur.
Discernable by the harp strings that reverberate with sound. Obviously a very small dinosaur..
ADDENDUM SEVEN
DINOSAUR AGE MONKEYS.
There are, give or take a few, 310 varieties of monkeys today in the world. Brazil has the largest, 95 endemic species.
No one, has so far, found any Monkey fossils from the age of the Dinosaurs.
But the Dinosaur age had their equivalent. Arboreal dinosaurs Ceratosaur or perhaps
Basal Coelurosaurs who lived in the trees of the forest filled the same evolutionary niche. Presumably, like the Monkeys, there were numerable species.
In New Zealand we have bones from at least five different types of these agile tree dwellers. Some with small heads and powerful hind quarters, with long arms were vegetarian. Others similar, with larger heads equipped with triangular razor sharp teeth preferred fresh meat from slower denizens.
In a concretion naturally split along the bone line lay a very small limb bone with another next at the lower end.
Our new techniques let me extract these bones with, as usual, a few hiccups in excellent condition.. So small I was informed they were probably a Shrew, lizard even perhaps a mouse, but not a Dinosaur way to small.
Once again the net came to my rescue. The little bone was an Astragalus (ankle bone) and only Theropodae cadre Astragalus has a pointed shaft connecting to the Tibia. No other Dinosaur has this type.
Lying compressed with pressure and age along the Tibia was the Fibula A final clean and picking the last of the sand stone from the specimen presented an unusual oddity. Where the astragalus was attached and two mm up the shaft two of what I can only called spindles stood out from the Tibia.
To me this could only mean Arboreal as the feet could rotate almost 180degrees giving the reptile remarkable agility in the tree tops. I can not find any record of this limb specialty in any records either in my possession or on the net.
ADDENDUM NINE / TEN
These fossils are still in the matrix, they show sufficient detail to stand out as to what they are.
First is the snout of a Carnivorous Dinosaur. It shows the full curve, upper jaw with teeth and Nasal Fenestra. Also a slicing tooth is obvious, but presumably from a larger reptile
Second is part of a jaw from a Pterosaur with truly vicious teeth.
This is not the first pterosaur material to hand but the first in a Phosphoric concretion…
ADDENDUM ELEVEN
This fossil was one of the first in a phosphoric concretion to be painstakingly extracted grain by grain. Dipped in Nitric acid only for seconds at a time
The fossil is now in the Wairoa Museum.
Standard procedure in those days was to break it in half to see what was inside to my surprise it was a hollow bone signifying terrestrial remains.
An Orthopaed`ist surgeon when shown stated,” I can only tell you it is from a Bi-ped animal and let no one ever tell you different. There is no question, it is a bone from a foot” He then described all the parts as to why he was so positive. Overseas experts say it is a vertebrae from a Mososaur a marine reptile but have never been able to show me an equivalent bone.
Research has shown me that a Dromaeosaurus have these foot bones.
ADDENDUM TWELVE
With all vertebrates what goes in, after subtracting all the nutrients, the rest comes out.
When what came out manages to survive for millions of years we call them Coprolites. However call them what you may they remain Dinosaur Poo.
These closely examined lets us know what the Dinosaur was feeding on.
Whether it was a meat eater or vegetarian. The two featured here were carnivorous or meat eaters, reptiles who bit off large chunks of his prey and swallowed with very little chewing. The small one was about the size of a Turkey, the larger, Ostrich size and just as agile when running. Both belonged to the family of Theropodia or Bi-peds.
ADDENDUM THIRTEEN
TURTLES AND TORTICES OF THE CRETACEOUS
These were two of the very few to survive the impending doom of the animals of the Cretaceous era. Their descendants large and small roam our seas still today. We have bones of the large green turtle from the Cretaceous seas.
This egg survived with yolk intact. We also have a hatchling the centuries saved for us to examine.
