KELLY BURNS
A Napier man believes a mammal fossil presumed to be 65 million years old has been found in Hawke's Bay.
Amateur palaeontologist Trevor Crabtree was with palaeontology enthusiasts Jodi and Barry Gee at Mangahounanga Valley in October, clearing the tracks of damage caused by snowstorms.
After spending seven hours sweeping
away debris, they decided to explore the stream and the Maungataniwha fossil site.
Melted snow had raised the water in the stream about 10 metres and wiped out banks, exposing a new fossil bed, Mr Crabtree said.
"Naturally we went and had a look."
The group collected new fossils, with Mrs Gee picking up the "impossible fossil".
At first Mr Crabtree said he did not suspect anything out of the ordinary and when he got home he popped it in acid to gently erode the outer layer.
Two months later he had another look and began chipping away at the rock, uncovering a reptile tooth.
He soon realised the shingle was, in fact, bone.
"That's bone, that's bone, that's bone, that might be - no I'm sure that's bone," he recalled saying.
Mr Crabtree said excitement hit home swiftly.
"I couldn't ring Jodi and Barry quick enough," he said. Mr Crabtree, 79, said 35 years of experience in amateur palaeontology made him believe the fossil contained a four-legged mammal and what he believed to be a lizard or gecko. If proven, he believes the find will help to put New Zealand on the map in the fossil world.
A collections manager from Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) was inspecting the fossil and planned to take it back to headquarters in Wellington for a full examination. GNS manager of palaeontology Chris Hollis said the fossil would be "really important if proven".
However, he said experts needed to examine the fossil before the claim could be substantiated.
If verified, the bones would complement the discovery five years ago of a mouse in the South Island.
Previously New Zealand was seen as a land of birds, with the only known native land mammal being the bat, which had an unknown history.
But the discovery of the mammal bones - a femur and two lower jaws dating from 16 to 19 million years ago - showed mammals did exist at least from 82 million years ago, when New Zealand broke away from Gondwanaland.
