The Waipara Greensand is a geological rock unit found in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, New Zealand. It dates from just after the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the ...

, the

Thanetian The Thanetian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS Geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Paleocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Serie ...

and

Selandian The Selandian is a stage in the Paleocene. It spans the time between . It is preceded by the Danian and followed by the Thanetian. Sometimes the Paleocene is subdivided in subepochs, in which the Selandian forms the "middle Paleocene". Stratigr ...

, around 61–62 million years ago in the early

Palaeocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palai� ...

. It is well known for its fossils, particularly for containing the oldest penguins (

Sphenisciformes Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

Geology

The Waipara Greensand is a fine to medium-grained, richly

glauconitic Glauconite is an iron potassium phyllosilicate (mica group) mineral of characteristic green color which is very friable and has very low weathering resistance. It crystallizes with a monoclinic geometry. Its name is derived from the Greek () me ...

quartzose sandstone. It crops out throughout North Canterbury. It has been interpreted as having been deposited in a shallow marine setting under conditions of very slow sedimentation. It is deepest in the Waipara River area, where it reaches a thickness of about , thinning to the south and north. The Waipara Greensand are

and

in age. The top of the Waipara Greensand marks the

Teurian While also using the international geologic time scale, many nations–especially those with isolated and therefore non-standard prehistories–use their own systems of dividing geologic time into epochs and faunal stages. In New Zealand, these epo ...

–

Waipawan While also using the international geologic time scale, many nations–especially those with isolated and therefore non-standard prehistories–use their own systems of dividing geologic time into epochs and faunal stages. In New Zealand, these epo ...

New Zealand stage boundary, which is correlated internationally with the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

boundary.

Fossils

The Waipara Greensand is only sparsely fossiliferous, but there are some significant discoveries made from this rock unit. There have been at least at least 16 neoselachian sharks found, including '' Chlamydoselachus keyesi'' and '' Centroselachus goord'', as well as the enigmatic '' Waiparaconus'', which is either a barnacle or a

coelenterate Radiata or Radiates is a historical taxonomic rank that was used to classify animals with radially symmetric body plans. The term Radiata is no longer accepted, as it united several different groupings of animals that do not form a monophyletic ...

, the remains of two species of proto‐penguin ''

Waimanu ''Waimanu'' is a genus of early penguin which lived during the Paleocene, soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, around 62–60 million years ago. It was about the size of an emperor penguin (1 metre). It is one of the most impor ...

'' and ''

Muriwaimanu ''Muriwaimanu'' is an extinct genus of early penguin. One species is known, ''Muriwaimanu tuatahi'', which was originally referred to ''Waimanu tuatahi'' in 2006 by Slack ''et al.''.Slack, K.E., Jones, C.M., Ando, T., Harrison G.L., Fordyce R.E. ...

'',Fordyce, R.E. and Jones, C.M. 1990. The history of penguins and new fossil penguin material from New Zealand. 419–446. In Davis, L.S. and Darby, J.T. (eds).'
Penguin biology
III. ''Academic Press, San Diego, 467 pp. rarely also fish bones and poorly preserved molluscs. Nanofossils include two key age‐diagnostic taxa, ''Chiasmolithus bidens'' and ''Hornbrookina teuriensis''.Mannering, A. A., and N. Hiller. 2008
An early Cenozoic neoselachianshark fauna from the southwest Pacific
''Palaeontology'' 51:1341–1365. The majority of shark specimens were recovered from loose weathered material that accumulates at the foot of steep banks along the Waipara River. Gypsum often encrusts the teeth, making identification difficult.

References

{{coord missing, New Zealand Rock formations of Canterbury, New Zealand Sandstone formations Geologic formations of New Zealand