Dinosaur fossil found, geologists claim

A pair of Whangarei geologists say they have found the fossilised remains of a dinosaur at Ngunguru.
Tutukaka geologist Darlene Buckley discovered what she believes to be a raptor fossil while walking her dog near the mouth of the Ngunguru River.
"I noticed it because it had a very unusual shape," Mrs Buckley said. "I thought it might be a bone but my dog didn't show any interest in it so I decided it must be a rock."
The geologist showed the 10cm-long sandstone object to her husband, Chris, who guessed it was a femur bone.
Both Mr and Mrs Buckley are trained geologists but neither specialised in paleontology or fossils.
By examining peer-reviewed articles on the internet the couple came up with several conclusions, including that the object was a mesozoic fossil (between 250 million and 265 million years old) and that the animal was a former land-based reptile, she said.
"The critical details of the knee hinge are well presented and have enabled us to provisionally identify the animal as a therapod belonging to the birdlike branch of the dinosaur family."
She said knee ligament and muscle attachments indicated the creature probably walked on its back legs and stood about one to two metres tall. But the femur was too heavy-set for the animal to have had flight capability. "In life the animal would have looked like a smaller version of the raptor stars made famous by the movie Jurassic Park."
Mrs Buckley said it was likely that when the animal died it was dismembered, with the broken femur buried in wet sand. Over time the bone was dissolved by acidic groundwater to form a mould, before the cavity was infilled with sand, becoming a cast replicating the form of the bone.
Research also established the fossil didn't originate at Ngunguru, but from another part of New Zealand.
The implication was that bird evolution took place earlier in the New Zealand area of Gondwana Land or that the fossil was transported from its original site. The Buckleys said they understood procedures including an x-ray needed to be carried out on the fossil and the next step was getting other experts involved.
Mrs Buckley said dinosaur fossils were extremely rare in New Zealand. If confirmed, the suspected raptor femur would be the first dinosaur fossil found in Northland.
Senior scientist at Wellington's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Dr Hamish Campbell examined a photo of the object and said he was not convinced it was a fossil bone, let alone a fossil. "Dinosaurs are strictly terrestrial so what would they be doing in deep marine sediments?"
Dr Campbell said if it was a bone it was more likely to have come from a marine reptile.