Extinct Fish Found In Rock

November 26, 2005

Release from: Matthew Torbit
Dominion Post

A fishy find has set scientists' pulses racing after two 620,000-year-old fossils uncovered near Gisborne were identified as an extinct native fish.

The native grayling trout, or upokororo, was once the most abundant freshwater fish in New Zealand, shoaling in its thousands, but the species vanished in the 1930s after introduced fish species took over its habitat.

Geological and Nuclear Science palaeobotanist Liz Kennedy and geologist Brent Alloway found the fossils in a former lake bed 10 kilometres inland from Gisborne – and at first thought nothing of it.

"We were looking at volcanic ash sediment and it was by chance we came across the fossils," Dr Alloway said.

"We sent them off for identification and pretty much forgot about them." However, inspection of the two 10-centimetre "impressions" revealed the extinct grayling.

Dr Alloway estimated the fossils to be about 620,000 years old, based on the age of volcanic ash deposits found with them.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research fish scientist Bob McDowall identified the fossils and described them as "a truly remarkable find" – as they were the only examples of the fossilised species known to science.

"It's another piece in a very big jigsaw of what once lived on earth," he said.

The grayling, which grew up to 45cm long, were considered a good eating fish by Maori and early European settlers.

The New Zealand grayling were not related to grayling found elsewhere in the world, but belonged to a separate family.