ANCIENT TEETH

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1929, Page 13

ANCIENT TEETH

DISCOVERY' IN PHOSPHATE CARGO

60,009,000 YEARS OLD.

Hundreds of shark’s teeth have been discovered in a cargo of phosphate from .Morocco which is a present being discharged at Auckland. This phosphate comes from a place 200 miles inland, so that the presence of shark’s teeth opens up interesting speculation. Some specimens of the teeth were shown io Professor J. A. Bartrum, M.Se., A.0.5.M., of the geology department, Auckland University College, when he stated they would be approximately 60,(KIO.OOO years old. Professor Bartrum identified the majority of the teeth shown him as being those of the lamna shark, although there were several other species represented. The Moroccan, phosphate is mined by the French, and railed to Casablanca, from where it is shipped all over the world. Tho cargo at present being unloaded at Auckland was brought by the steamer Newton Pine.

The Moroccan prosphate is much finer than that from Nauru and Ocean Island, and this facilitates quick loading. The Newton Pine’s 6800-ton cargo was taken on in six hours— shutes pouring tho phosphate on board at the rate of more than 1060 tons an hour.

This fertiliser is formed from guano deposits which act through phosphate when carried down by water, and is precipitated in limestone. Most of the teeth are well preserved, although since their exposure some of Them have become very brittle.

In 1845 Henslow first drew attention to the deposit of corprolites below the chalk in Surrey and elsewhere. Since then, large deposits of phosphate have been discovered in various parts of the world.