FOSSILS FOUND IN SOUTHERN ALPS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25970, 25 November 1949, Page 3

FOSSILS FOUND IN SOUTHERN ALPS

GREYMOUTH MAN’S DISCOVERY From Our Own Reporter GREYMOUTH, November 24. The chance discovery by an amateui geologist of fossils 5000 ft up on the Southern Alps has led to investigations by officers of the Geological Survey Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the finding of additional fossils, and the fixing for the first time of the age of the rocks of the alpine divide on the western side. The fossils have enabled the geologists to establish that the rocks of the Alps are of the Upper Triassic period, which means that they are 290.000,000 years old. Such fossils had previously been found on the Canterbury side of the Southern Alps, but not on the West Coast side. The same type of fossils had also beer found in Southland. Nelson, and near Kawhai. The original discoverer of the fossils in the Southern Alps was Mr F. W. Munden, of Greymouth, an amateur ’’eologist, who handed his specimens over to the Geological Survey Division at Greymouth. The geologists were more than mildly interested in view of the fact that no similar discoveries had been made on the western side of the Alps and they recently conducted a field investigation. The fossils were located at the head of the Trent river, a tributary of the Ahaura river. 5000 ft above sea-level.