FOSSIL 25 MILLION YEARS OLD

Press, Volume C, Issue 29553, 30 June 1961, Page 13

FOSSIL 25 MILLION YEARS OLD

One of the most remark-1 able fossils ever found in| New Zealand—a crayfish Ilin I long and about 25m years] old—is described in a buile tin of the Geological Survey 1 The bulletin was written by Dr M F Glaessner. of the University of Adelaide, one of the world’s leading paleontologists. It describes the fossilised remains of crabs and crayfish which crawled on the beds of seas that occupied the New Zealand region millions of years ago. The fossil shown in the photograph was discovered many years ago in quarries

at Tarakohe, Nelson, now occupied by the Golden Bay Cement Company. In size and shape it looks much like the present-day New Zealand crayfish and is. perhaps, an ancestor. It was preserved in its natural position on a slab of fine grey sandstone. The front part of the shell is partly crushed and the tail is missing. The fact that the remainder of the shell has been preserved without crushing leads Dr Glaessne'to believe that the animal had probably recently moulted, and that its new shell was still flexible. From its own collections.

and from museums and private collections, the Geological Survey sent to Dr Glaessner all known specimens of fossil crabs and crayfish collec:ed from New Zealand rock strata Described tn his bulletin t* the oldest known primitive 'ype of crayfish from this country This fossil, less than 2in long, was collected 60 years ago near Glenoamaru. in Otago, from Frata of Jurassic age, about 150 m years sgo. It belongs to the Otago Museum. Almost as old are epectmcn* of at least three broken individuals collected nine years ago at Port Waikato by an Auckland University student. One specimen has the legs still attached to the shell. A drawing by Dr Glaessner recnnrtructs an anima) with a body about I|in long, and wi’h legs of similar length An Interesting And. made In the- Waiau river in North Canterbury In 1867 by the early New Z-aland Brtist and naturalist. James Buchanan, was a boulder of tertiary rock containing hundred* of fossilised pieces of crabs’ legs. Dr. Glaessner suggests that these fossils may be remnants of a meal by a crab-eating animal, perhap a seal, that lived around the cos st* of the New Zealand of those times. During the tertiary period a genus of targe crabs lived in New Zealand waters. Early ones of the Eocene and Oblf«oeene periods, some 40m to 60m rears ago. were no bigger than large crabs living here today but in the succeeding Miocene period, about 25m year* ego. they i grew much larger More ■han a dozen aperlmens hare been found, mostly in sand*’one find mudstone in Nnrth Taranaki. One. collected near ■ Whangamomana. in Taranaki, i has a shell 6tn aerms. and powerful. p‘»'eer-!!ke claw* 4in long. Reeentlr a giant crab claw. 7in long, was found bv the family of Mr A. D Wright, a sbeepfarrner, 'M A*ea. in the Wstrarsn*