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Pyramid Valley
Pyramid Valley is a locality in the Hurunui District of New Zealand. It is well known for its prominent limestone rock formations. It is located near Waikari in the North Canterbury region, 80 km north-west of Christchurch. On the foot of the valley is a swamp which became notable in 1939 as New Zealand's largest paleontological site for moa fossils. The swamp was formed around 18,000 BC and became drained c. 2,000 years ago. It provided a lush vegetation which attracted five different moa species. In 1938 the landowners Joseph and Rob Hodgen found three large bones of Dinornis giganteus while they buried a dead horse in the swamp. They opened this area for excavations and in the early 1940s fossil hunters like Robert Falla, Roger Duff, Robert Cushman Murphy, Jim Eyles, Ron Scarlett and many others began their research work at this site and unearthed the remains of long extinct birds including more than 183 complete moa skeletons and tens of thousands of fossil bone fragments ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurunui District
Hurunui District is a territorial local government district within the Canterbury Region on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, north of Christchurch. It stretches from the east coast to the Main Divide. Its land area is . Local government During the period, 1853 to 1876, the area north of the Hurunui River was administered as part of the Nelson Province. After the abolition of the provinces in 1876 the Amuri and Cheviot counties were formed. In the 1989 local government reforms, these counties were merged with Hurunui County to form the present district. The current district mayor is Marie Black, who was elected in 2019 upon the retirement of previous mayor Winton Dalley. Population Hurunui District covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2. Hurunui District had a population of 12,558 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 1,029 people (8.9%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 2,082 people ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waikari
Waikari is a small town in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. Its Anglican parish church is the Church of Ascension, 79 Princes Street, Waikari, where William Orange was vicar in the 1920s. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "dig for water" for . Waikari is located on State Highway 7 near the Weka Pass and was served by the Waiau Branch railway from 6 April 1882 until its closure on 15 January 1978. The section of the railway through the Weka Pass has been retained by the Weka Pass Railway and preserved trains operate between Waipara and Waikari. The town is also located near the site of Māori cave art and rock drawings in the Weka Pass Reserve. Demographics Waikari is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers . Waikari is included in Upper Hurunui statistical area. Waikari had a population of 264 at the 2018 New Zealand census, unchanged since the 2013 census, and an increase of 12 pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canterbury, New Zealand
Canterbury ( mi, Waitaha) is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of , making it the largest region in the country by area. It is home to a population of The region in its current form was established in 1989 during nationwide local government reforms. The Kaikoura District joined the region in 1992 following the abolition of the Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council. Christchurch, the South Island's largest city and the country's second-largest urban area, is the seat of the region and home to percent of the region's population. Other major towns and cities include Timaru, Ashburton, Rangiora and Rolleston. History Natural history The land, water, flora, and fauna of Waitaha/Canterbury has a long history stretching from creation of the greywacke basement rocks that make up the Kā Tiritiri o te Moana/Southern Alps to the arrival of the first humans. This history is linked to the creation of the earth, the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / Ōtākaro flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park along its banks. The city's territorial authority population is people, and includes a number of smaller urban areas as well as rural areas. The population of the urban area is people. Christchurch is the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand, after Auckland. It is the major urban area of an emerging sub-region known informally as Greater Christchurch. Notable smaller urban areas within this sub-region include Rangiora and Kaiapoi in Waimakariri District, north of the Waimakariri River, and Rolleston and Lincoln in Selwyn District to the south. The first inhabitants migrated to the area sometime between 1000 and 1250 AD. They hunted moa, which led ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinornis Giganteus
The North Island giant moa (''Dinornis novaezealandiae'') is an extinct moa in the genus ''Dinornis''. Even though it might have walked with a lowered posture, standing upright, it would have been the tallest bird ever to exist, with a height estimated up to 3.6 metres (12 feet). Taxonomy It was a ratite and a member of the order Dinornithiformes.Davies, S.J.J.F. (2003). "Moas". In Hutchins, Michael (ed.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. 8 Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins (2 ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. pp. 95–98. ISBN 0-7876-5784-0. The ''Dinornithiformes'' were flightless birds with a sternum but without a keel. They also had a distinctive palate. Origin The origin of ''ratites'' is becoming clearer, as it is now believed that early ancestors of these birds were able to fly (Davies, 2003). From such fossil evidence it is believed that the early flying ratites originated in the Northern Hemisphere and flew to the Southern Hemisphere (Davies, 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Falla
Sir Robert Alexander Falla (21 July 1901 – 23 February 1979) was a New Zealand museum administrator and ornithologist. Early life Falla was born in Palmerston North in 1901 to George Falla and his wife, Elizabeth Kirk. As his father was working for the railways, the family shifted frequently, and he lived in Hawera, Masterton, and Invercargill. At his primary school in Invercargill, he developed an interest in natural history due to the influence of Alfred Philpott. Falla gained a junior national scholarship and studied at Auckland Grammar School, from where he graduated in 1918. He pursued his dream of going to sea for a few years in various jobs, but then started to follow his interest in ornithology, first through part-time study at Auckland University College, and then at Auckland Training College, a training institution for teachers. He transferred to the university in Auckland, from where he graduated in 1924 with a Bachelor of Arts, in after some teaching at primar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Duff
Roger Shepherd Duff (11 July 1912 – 30 October 1978) was a New Zealand ethnologist and museum director. Biography Duff was born in Invercargill, New Zealand in 1912. He is the son of Oliver Duff founding editor of the New Zealand Listener, and helped raise his nephew, writer Alan Duff. He started work at Canterbury Museum in 1938 and became its director ten years later. Duff excavated skeletons of moa, an extinct flightless bird, at Pyramid Valley in north Canterbury and at the Wairau Bar in Marlborough. Duff brought proof through his scientific papers of the existence of Moa-hunters as an early and distinct form of Māori culture. He developed and defended one of three major theories as to the origins of the Polynesian people: he believed, on the basis mainly on the physical differences, that the ancestors of the Polynesians could not have come from Asia via the Melanesian island. His main idea was that they had moved south from the area around Taiwan, through the Micrones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Cushman Murphy
The whaling ship, ''Daisy'', which Murphy traveled on to the Antarctic Robert Cushman Murphy (April 29, 1887 – March 20, 1973) was an American ornithologist and Lamont Curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History. He went on numerous oceanic expeditions and was an expert on marine birds, and wrote several major books on them. He described a species of petrel which is now known as Murphy's petrel. Mount Murphy in Antarctica and Murphy Wall in South Georgia are named after him. Life and work Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Thomas D. Murphy and Augusta Cushman. Around 1906 Murphy assisted Frank Chapman at the American Museum of Natural History and read the proofs of ''Warblers of North America''. He was an undergraduate at Brown University, where he graduated in 1911. He married Grace Alice Bairstow in 1911 who he met as a student at Brown University. Grace persuaded Robert to take a position as naturalist aboard the whaling ship ''Daisy''. After their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Eyles
James Roy Eyles (10 January 1926 – 12 November 2004) was a New Zealand archaeologist. Biography Born in Blenheim on 10 January 1926, Eyles was the son of Albert Roy Eyles and Daphne Eyles (née Daken). He spent his early years living with his family at the Wairau Bar near Blenheim where, in 1939 as a schoolboy, he discovered early human skeletons and associated artefacts including necklaces, stone tools and moa egg. Eyles discovered several more burials on the bar, and assisted with the excavations carried out by Roger Duff from the Canterbury Museum. The site is regarded as one of the oldest and most important archaeological sites in New Zealand. Eyles continued his association with Duff during the excavations of Pyramid Valley Swamp in the 1940s. Duff recognised his contribution by naming an extinct hawk found in the swamp the Eyles' harrier. In the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours, Eyles was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to arch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Scarlett
Ronald Jack Scarlett (22 March 1911 – 9 July 2002) was a New Zealand paleozoologist. Early life and family Scarlett was born at Stoke, near Nelson, on 22 March 1911 to Walter Andrew Scarlett and Lilian Elsie (née Cresswell). He was the oldest child of four brothers and four sisters. His father was an impoverished sawyer and so the family was forced to move around the upper South Island to find work in sawmills. Ron Scarlett attended six primary schools until he began to work at age 14. He had jobs on farms, in a sawmill, as a labourer, as golf greenkeeper, as gardener, as goldminer and later as trucker for a coalmine. During World War II, he spent some time as a conscientious objector in the Hanmer Springs Conscientious Objectors camp. Scientific career After he joined the staff of the Canterbury Museum in 1952 he became one of the most prolific osteologists of New Zealand. Scarlett became notable for his excavations over many decades on several paleontological deposits on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. Birds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landforms Of Canterbury, New Zealand
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateaux, and plains are the fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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