|
Otago Daily Times
Aucklandstuff.com
22nd January 2003
UNPICKING THE PAST:
University of Otago
geologist Associate Prof Ewan Fordyce
examines the fossilised skull of a 'new' dolphin
species, which he found by a rare coincidence.
A rare coincidence has resulted in University of Otago geologist Associate Professor Ewan Fordyce discovering a "new" species of ancient dolphin in the Waitaki Valley.
Early last month, Prof Fordyce and a university scientific team cut a trench to remove an ancient whale fossil from rock in the valley. They then found the fossilised dolphin beside it.
In 15 years of unearthing marine fossils from the North Otago and South Canterbury area, this was only the third time he had made a second find closely linked to an initial specimen nearby, Prof Fordyce said.
"It looked a bit different and I thought, this isn't a routine specimen. This one we've got to get on to pretty pronto."
"It's really different from anything else that's been described in the world.
"It does not closely match any major group of dolphins reported previously."
In life, the dolphin was probably a little more than 3m long.
It probably appeared similar to a bottle-nosed dolphin but was smaller, he said.
The fossilised dolphin head is still being painstakingly excavated from a block of 23 million-year-old limestone.
Prof Fordyce said details of the dolphin's ear region were different from known species.
The jaws, strangely, had no obvious sockets for teeth. One tiny conical tooth had been found next to the skull.
The teeth may have been mainly at the tips of the jaws, suggesting a "highly specialised animal" which may have fed on squid.
The limestone was deposited in quiet seas long ago, when most of modern New Zealand was under water, and well before the Southern Alps were uplifted, he said.
Top
|
