Media Releases

Our Changing World

Released at 10:48 am on 9 March 2012

DuringNights with Bryan Crump

A short stretch of river next to a bare paddock on the outskirts of St Bathans looks unremarkable to the untrained eye. But over the last few years, this small area has yielded a rich treasure trove of animal fossils, revealing that 15-19 million years ago this part of Zealandia was an enormous lake.

On the first day of their latest fossil dig, Our Changing World producer Alison Ballance joins the team as they uncover bird bones and fish bones from the eroding river bank, and they tell her about some of the rare fossils they hope to find again such as bats, the unusual terrestrial mammal, tuatara, crocodiles and terrestrial turtles.