In 2020, when Aucklands Watercare was excavating two huge vertical shafts for a significant upgrade of the major pipeline that brings raw sewage for treatment from the central city they dug through an ancient shell bed. Auckland paleontologist Bruce Hayward compared it to “discovering gold right on your doorstep.”
Once they were notified of the fossil deposits significance, Watercare and their contractors were eager to help and a substantial stack of shelly sand was disposed in a nearby paddock so that paleontologists might explore it over lots of months. Watercare also moneyed 2 paleontology graduate trainees, working under the supervision of Auckland Museum manager Dr. Wilma Blom, to painstakingly sift through the heap for many weeks.
As an outcome, it is estimated that over 300,000 fossils were taken a look at and several thousand have been returned in the museum as a record of this “unique discover.”
Fossil Analysis and Environmental Insights
” Detailed identification of the fossils shows that they were transferred between 3 and 3.7 million years ago in a subtidal channel in an early variation of the contemporary Manukau Harbour,” stated Dr. Hayward. As an outcome, the fossils include a number of subtropical types, whose family members today live in the warmer waters around the Kermadec and Norfolk islands.
In their clinical paper that appeared today in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, the 5 authors record 266 various fossil species, making it the wealthiest and most diverse fauna of its age ever discovered in New Zealand.
” What is surprising,” says lead author Dr. Hayward “is that the animals consists of fossils that resided in various environments that have actually been brought together in the ancient marine channel by wave action and strong tidal currents.
It includes ten specimens of the iconic NZ flax snail that must have survived on the surrounding land and been cleaned down into the sea by storm overflow. These are without a doubt the earliest known flax snails worldwide. The majority of the fossils survived on the sea floor, some in brackish estuaries, others connected to difficult rocky shorelines, and still more have been brought in from offshore of the exposed west coast at the time.”
” Rare finds have actually consisted of isolated baleen whale vertebrae, a damaged sperm whale tooth, the spinal column of an extinct sawshark, oral plates of eagle rays, and a variety of terrific white shark teeth.” The work has actually been devoted to Dr. Alan Beu, New Zealands leading molluscan fossil specialist, who was working on the fossils when he died previously this year.
Recommendation: “A varied Late Pliocene fossil animals and its paleoenvironment at Māngere, Auckland, New Zealand” by Bruce W. Hayward, Thomas F. Stolberger, Nathan Collins, Alan G. Beu and Wilma Blom, 27 August 2023, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics.DOI: 10.1080/ 00288306.2023.2243234.
A wastewater dig unearthed a 3-million-year-old fossil bed with 266 species, using a picture of diverse ancient marine life. Credit: Bruce Hayward
Fossils of the worlds oldest known flax snails, an extinct sawshark spinal column, and fantastic white shark teeth were all unearthed in a stack of sand that had actually been excavated from under the Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2020.
A paper just recently released in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics describes the 266 fossil species as one of the richest and most diverse groups of three-million-year-old fauna ever discovered in New Zealand. A minimum of 10 formerly unknown species will be described and named in future research.
Fossil bonanza from Aucklands Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant
” Detailed identification of the fossils shows that they were deposited between 3 and 3.7 million years back in a subtidal channel in an early version of the contemporary Manukau Harbour,” stated Dr. Hayward. As an outcome, the fossils include a number of subtropical types, whose relatives today live in the warmer waters around the Kermadec and Norfolk islands. At least 10 previously unknown species are present and will be explained and called in future work.”
Many of the fossils lived on the sea floor, some in brackish estuaries, others connected to hard rocky coastlines, and still more have actually been carried in from offshore of the exposed west coast at the time.”