#duntroon

One of New Zealand's many fossil scallops. The genus is one of the most common in Eocene shallow-water limestone and greensand deposits, and is also known from Australia.

There's at least 20 extinct species in the genus, and some other extinct and living ones now placed in other genera, but just one living species left, which I'll cover later since I found some later in the trip.

S. calcar was a small species, barely reaching 5cm, and lived on the shores of New Zealand during the Miocene. Others in the family lived around the shorelines of Gondwana, and have been found fossilised in New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica, and South America, but these days only remain in New Zealand and eastern Australia.

Struthiolariids bury themselves in sand or mud, inhaling and exhaling seawater through two mucus-lined siphonal tubes, and extract suspended particulate organic matter with their gills.

First described by paleontologist Henry Suter in 1917. The name means 'Large Natica with a flattened spire".

A genus of predatory marine snails, found from the Paleocene to the Miocene (66.0 - 11.6 Ma) but only around New Zealand.

From Oamaru the five of us went a little further up the coast to the valley of the Waitaki River, which boasts enough fossil sites, karst landscape, and places of geological and historical interest that it's been designated a UNESCO Global Geopark. Quite a few of the fossils I discussed from the last trip are from the rocks of the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark.

First stop was the geology museum in Duntroon, which boasts an impressive collection for its small size - they're understandably proud of their local geology. I'll discuss a bunch of them over subsequent posts.

Across the road from the museum is a section of the river valley that the locals have restored from pasture into a proper wetland.

Most the area being limestone leads to various karst geology - sinkholes like the small one in Duntroon, the various cliffs around the valley, Elephant Rocks and Aslan's Camp, and the graben at Earthquakes.

要講到紐西蘭奧馬魯景點，那《Elephant Rocks 大象岩》絕對不能錯過！這趟紐西蘭旅遊時間規劃的相當輕鬆，畢竟是趟紐西蘭蜜月，自然跟一般趕著玩紐西蘭的行程有著截然的不同，好比Elephant Rocks 大象岩就比較偏深度旅遊會安排的景點，而Elephant Rocks 大象岩之所以吸引人莫過於電影<納尼亞傳奇-獅子、女巫、魔衣櫥>的拍攝場景，更被人稱作是紐西蘭版巨石陣，阿新我規劃從Twizel開到Oamaru的83號公路可以路過，順遊去Elephant Rocks 踩點。 Continue reading Untitled