IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Witness, Issue 3882, 7 August 1928, Page 5

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

A SHARK'S TOOTH. By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. “ Under separate cover,” a correspondent at Kawhia, on the cost of Taranaki, writes: “ You will receive the fossil tooth of an extinct saurian, known to the Maoris as tuatini, or generalised as taniwha. It was discovered by Mr J. Turner, Kawhia, embedded in hard sandstone, containing a fair percentage of lime, which was being spawled for road-metal-ling. The boulder from which the tooth was extracted formed part of a huge deposit near Kawhia, about 120 feet above sea level. It was about 12 feet below the surface of the seam, which was 25 feet thick. It has not been polished; its beautiful lustre is its natural condition. Small pieces enclosed are fragments of the matrix in which it was embedded, but which was shattered by the gelignite explosion The identity of the owner, and a brief biography, and the probable age when it frequented the waters of this coast, will be appreciated. These fossils, I understand, arc fairly plentiful in the King Country, but this one is unusually large.”

A saurian is a reptile. The owner of the tooth was not a saurian, but a fish. It was a shark of monstrous size, much bigger than any sharks in these days of small things. The tooth, a splendid specimen, is three inches long and an inch and a-half broad at the base. It is perfectly conical; it has a comparatively high crown; and along both sharp edges, and running around the point, there are many fine, but well-marked serrations. The owner belonged to a great group of sharks, the Carcharodons, bearing a Greek title that refers to jagged or pointed teeth. They are the most formidable fish known. Some of them had the prodigious length of 80 feet. They lived in New Zealand waters, and in many other parts of the world, roaming Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene seas, perhaps from 19,000,000 to 95,000,000 years ago. Mr Turner’s species is Carcharodon ariculatus. This seems to be the first record of its presence near Kawhia, * las been recorded from Amuri Bluff, the Weka Pass, Waitaki, Raglan, Vv aipara. Broken River, the interesting Trelissick Basin in the Southern Alns, yVaiho Forks, the Curiosity Shop on the hakaia River, Blueskin, Tokomairiro. and the W aihola Gorge. This long list is evidence that, in its prime it was very plentiful.

Judging by the size of its teeth, it was smaller than its contemporary relative, Carcharodon megalodon—big-tooth. A tooth belonging to this terrible monster found at Cape Foul wind, is about five inches long, with 123 serrations on one side and about 150 on the other. Cape Foulwind. Westport, Nelson, the Weka Pass, and Boby’s Creek, near Waipara, are the places in which megalodon’s teeth have been found in New Zealand. It lived also in the waters of North America, Europe, Burma, Java, Patagonia, and Australia, a terror to all other creatures of the sea. yet, for reasons that cannot be explained, unable to hold its own. in life’s battle. Although these two species have been dismissed from the universe, the group is still represented in the world by the great white shark, Carcharodon . rondeletii—these hard names are unavoidable—which lives in all waters from the Mediterranean Sea to Australian seas, and is not unknown in New Zealand. Its fossil teeth show that it was contemporaneous with the larger extinct members of the group. One of these teeth round at Caversham, near Dunedin, belonged to a great white shark, 25 feet long. It is believed that members of this species attain a length of 40 feet, probably about half the size of some of their extinct relatives. The great white shark is remarkable for its survival through the ages from the Dawn of Recent Life, placed at years ago, to the present time. Known significantly as the man-eater, it is described as one of the most formidable members of its order As far as the records of the rocks have been read, Carcharodon auriculatus made its earliest appearance in New Zealand. In these parts and in North America, Australia, it survived until the Miocene Period, and later in Europe.

A bunch •of oak twigs with their autumn leaves was placed in a vase on a table in the waiting room of Mr R. B. Cranwell. Hamilton. Suspended from a tw ig he saw a grey bag-shaped object about two inches long. The bag seemed to be completely sealed, but during about a w eek its position was changed four times. And now-,” Mr Cranw-ell wrote, it is suspended from the ceiling. We never saw it move, but merely find it in thni rk p ac ?' 1 right in supposing that there is a caterpillar inside, and nfVtA 13 able , to o ? en the purse-like end ot its home and protrude itself suffieientlv tor purposes of locomotion ? ”

. The caterpillar, at night time, protrudes from the case its head and part of its hpl!;nri and T Wa <S ?. bout .> dragging the case behind. Loconiotion is provided~T>y its ix gs ’- wblcfl are strong and have no difficulty in moving the body and the , If 16 ,S ! disturbed it withdraws into the case closing the aperture at the top with a silken cord. This is kept in readiness, and is pulled tight from the inside. Mr G. V. Hudson, who gives this basket-making moth, CEceticus omnivorous, that is, the omnivorous house-builder much space in his new “Butterflies and’ Moths of New Zealand,” states that the process of closing the aperture is conducted very quickly. The upper edges of the case he explains, are flexible, and told together closely, completely obstructing the entrance. The caterpillar fastens the case to a twig or branch or other object with a loop of strong silk, drawn tight to prevent the case from swinging or ever the silver cord be loosed. The top aperture is closed in the way described. The bottom one is closed by bemg twisted back above the extremity

Mr Cranwell noticed that a piece of leaf had been woven into the case he saw. This is part of the caterpillar’s clesinn. Th‘e Outside of a. cilsd sometimes

is covered with fragments of leaves and twigs, sloping up and down the case. Inese may be fresh and green, having? been recently placed in position. Moss or stones may be attached, but not as often as leaves and twigs. The home is warm, cosy and comfortable. Inside, it is lined with soft silk, as thick as a kid B -Ki Ve ’4. ? nd strong that it is impossible to tear it, or to cut it, except with a sharp instrument.” The perfect female moth has no wings, looks like a maggot, and, it is stated, lives all her life in her home. It is different with the male. On passing through the chrysalis stage, in the spring, he works his way down to the bottom of the case, forces open the aperture there, and ptotrudes his head and thorax. The front part of his skin is rent, and there emerges the perfect insect, clinging to the outside of his old habitation and drying his wings before he tastes the pleasures of a free life in the air denied to the female. His win«-s are blackislvbrown. his body is deep black a . n hairy, and he is so inconspicuous that he is seldom seen. He finds a female who lays her eggs in the case. Her tamiiy as soon as they are hatched, leave the old home, to roam over the plant to which-it is fastened, letting themselves down from branch to branch by silken threads.

In the first week of July Mr A M Pherson, Birch road. Pukekohe. had his attention drawn to a commotion amongst birds in a clump of wattle trees near his house. In a .tew. seconds, a kingfisher came out carrying in its bill a white-eye, or wax? e *' e - ■ company of sparrows followed, chattering and flying about, as if protesting against the kingfisher’s action. Alighting on the top of a paling fence, and making sure that it had a firm "rip of the white-eye’s wing, the kingfisher began to beat its captive from side to side on the palings. “So vigorous were the blows.’ Mr MTherson states, “that feathers soon began to fly in all directions. the kingfisher shifted his quarters cabbage tree about 100 yards awav. Mitli a pair of field glasses I was able to follow its movements. For several minutes it continued to beat the whiteeye against a branch. It then flew, to a piece ot native bush, carrying the dead white-eye. This is another instance of the kingfisher s characteristically dominating and ruthless attitude to smaller birds particularly to the prettj- little inoffensive whiteeye.