Pyramid Valley is a locality in the

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 gover ...

of New Zealand. It is well known for its prominent limestone rock formations. It is located near

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 Cult ...

in the

North Canterbury 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 fo ...

region, 80 km north-west of

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 / ...

. On the foot of the valley is a swamp which became notable in 1939 as New Zealand's largest paleontological site for

moa Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. The term has also come to be used for chicken in many Polynesian cultures and is found in the names of many chicken recipes, such as Kale moa and Moa Samoa. Moa or MOA may also refer ...

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 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 wor ...

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 ...

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 numer ...

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 ...

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 old ...

and many others began their research work at this site and unearthed the remains of long extinct birds including more than 183 complete

skeletons and tens of thousands of fossil bone fragments from about 46 species of

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 s ...

. Pyramid Valley is now also well known for its wine.

References

*R. N. Holdaway, T. H. Worthy : A reappraisal of the late Quaternary fossil vertebrates of Pyramid Valley Swamp, North Canterbury, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 1997, Vol. 24: 69–121 0301-4223/2401-069. *C. J. Burrows : Moa Browsing: Evidence from the Pyramid Valley Mire, 1989 New Zealand of Ecology, Vol 12, (Supplement) 1989

External links

Time Magazine. Monday, Apr. 25, 1949 – Moa in Aspic
Landforms of Canterbury, New Zealand Paleontological sites of New Zealand Valleys of New Zealand Populated places in Canterbury, New Zealand {{palaeo-site-stub

Further reading

References

External links