ANCIENT FOSSILS FOUND

Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 5

ANCIENT FOSSILS FOUND

Giant Penguins and Whales FASCINATING NORTH OTAGO DEPOSITS

About thirty million years ago, when much of New Zealand, except probably the ' mountains and high land masses, were still submerged, species of whales and penguins that are not known to-day, swam in waters that are now dry . land:. Their fossilised remains lie m sandstone and limestone deposits far inland, and they have been disinterred : with painstaking care by Professor B. J. Marples, of the 1 University of Otago, who has assembled the fossilised bones of several species of penguins. His conclusion from his ■ studies is that at: that far distant time penguins very similar to the birds now. seen in southern waters, except for size, - ‘ existed in the sea round New, Zealand.

i TALL AS SMALL HUMANS. The evidence of the petrified bones suggests that, penguins much larger that those, which exist, to-day must have lived off the New Zealand coast in those, remote days, it has been possible to restore almost completely birds that , are about half as big again as . the Emperor penguin—the largest species known to-day. The Emperor stands about three feet high and his ancient ancestor must have come close to five' feet, or not far shprt-of a small human being. Several varieties of penguins have, been-found, each varying slightly in size, some being rather smaller than the present Emperor. Fossilised remains of prehistoric birds have been found in various parts of Otago, including some at Burnside, hut Professor Marples made a real find in large, pieces of rock that have broken off-limestone bluffs,in the Dun-, troon district. ’Although the formations are perhaps 25 miles from the present coast: line, the soft sand and limestone give, abundant .'evidence of' former. marine life. It has already yielded a wealth of material, and as\ each fresh piece of, rock is weathered i and tumbled down .from the bluffs some i new :discovery is made: A piece that came down recently-contained an ex- j cellent specimen of'' the large tail- 1 bones of a fish 'similar to the moderii j tunny. ■ - • . FIRST DISCOVERIES. Professor Marples made his first discoveries at Duntroon :■ some years ago when he was spending .v holiday, in the district- . i.He was passing, the . .rock formation when:: lie noted fossil outcrops obviously indicating the head ■ of a whole. • Subsequent investigations proved, that the area was a ..paradise for .the dossil hunter and lie'has made manyexcursions to retrieve specimens.' Although tlief •whale head was the first: and: somewhat: bulky, piece, ho subsequently ' found the penguin remains of. absorbing interest, and he has concentrated largely on them, collecting the bones of no fewer than five distinct species: -He also lias many other pieces showing distinctive characteristics. but the amount of material available of each is insufficient to catalogue of separate species. ' Fossil, limiting appears, to combine the thrills of several sports, but it also calls for infinite patience. There is the thrill of seeking treasure; the fascinating ■ work of excavating the specimens once discovered, followed bv the task of identification when the

hones are finall.f recovered from the surrounding rock. , TASK OF EXCAVATION. ' The whale’s head offered something of a problem, for it was about six feet . long’and firmly embedded in a piece of mete about the size of a moderate room. It had to be laboriously undercut until'the required slab was ready to fall out and then smothered in plaster and splints, so that it would not be daniaged. An army harvesting team in the vicinity at the time was re- , quisitioned to help in the removal of the specimen. Although the examination of the whale has not been completed, it is now known that, it is of the whalebone species—as distinct .from modern whales with teeth. It is apparently from the earliest known group of the whalebone species, and probably a primitive member of that group. The j skull is about five feet long, and it is assumed that the complete whale was I from 20 to 30 feet long. The bone j structure’ is of interest, in that-the separate bones are not so telescoped as in modern types. It .is estimated’ that the Duntroon remains belong to the early Oligocene period of the Tertiary Era in the world’s history, dating from about 30,000)000 'years ago,'""soon after the hrst appearance of mammals. • In spite of their great antiquity, they have been remarkably preserved, and although they tend ,to crumble when handled, or while being extracted from the surrounding sandstone or limestone, they can he ''perfectly • restored-' by ■ tfie- application of shellac. X-ray photographs of the petrified bones have shown structure exactly similar to that of' modern .bones,, these old oligocene specimens being virtually indistinguishable on the negative from bones freshly taken from penguins. DELICATE OPERATION,

The extraction of the hones from their bed of rock is an extremely delicate operation, requiring patience and skill. Fine dental tools are most satisfactory for clearing away the rock material from the bones, A fascinating study is provided by the comparative shapes of the hones of’ancient and modern penguins. There is a _ tendency,,sis in almost all forms of bird and animal life, for the, bones to _ become more refined in later periqds. : Changes in habits have brought about changes in the shape and structure of bones, according to the uses to which they' have been put.

One noted authority has argued that penguins never had the power of flight, and that the wings or flippers were always used for swimming. The wing structure, however, strongly resembles that of marine birds which do fly, 'and it is possible to argue that the penguin sprang from- a flighted ancestor, but gradually lost the power of flight through living so completely in the water. The excavation of the hones from the Duntroon deposits is not unattended with some danger. On occasions Professor Marples and his assistants have engaged, in the reniovat of fossils from the cliff face or from overhanging rock. Even when they have worked on rocks at the foot of the cliff there has been danger from falling debris. On a recent occasion, an enormous piece of limestone came down , without warning very close to’where a party was • working. /. . -■ It Can only, ho presumed that' the j limestone and sandstone deposits were originally the, bed of the sea, and that favourable -currents carried the bodies of dead penguins and whales to their resting places, in which they -were ultimately deeply buried in lime and sand.-- Eventually, the sea bed rose arid became dry land. Erosion by wind and water has uncovered the limestone bluffs and has made the dis-■ coveries possible. |

Remarkable progress has'been made recently in .tracing the development of living creatures from studies of fossils. In a broadcast talk from the 8.8. C. this week,- Professor G. M. S. Watson, professor of zoology at London University, announced that an important link between the reptiles and the mammals had been discovered. Important finds of fossils had been made in Russia and China, but the intermediary stage between the two types of creatures had been covered by discoveries made during the last few years in England. An extensive find had been made of a very large number of bones of creatures that had obviously been the prey of some large reptile. . This animal, which 'was about the size of 1 " a rabbit and which lived about 100,000,000 years ago, showed the metamorphic stages between the two species, the most important feature-being that it provided the link between the three-boned lower jaw of the reptiles and- the single hone of the jaw of the mammals. It was now conclusively proved that the mammals sprqng from a reptilian ancestor.