Fossil tooth of the extinct “megatooth shark”, Carcharodon megalodon (left) & a tooth from the living great white shark (right). Photo: Specimen from the National Paleontological Collections, GNS Science, Lower Hutt. Photograph Marianna Terezow, GNS Science
Preserving biodiversity is one of the key challenges of our time, so it's good to know that New Zealand has a unique global advantage. We are the only country in the world with a complete 100% fossil record.
This unrivalled database of New Zealand taxonomy and that of its surrounding area (including Antarctica), started out as a paper based archive in the 1940s.
Professor of Geology, James Crampton, says the Fossil Record Files are essentially a whakapapa of our biological history, allowing us to ask and answer questions about our flora and fauna that no else on the planet can do.
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