Joan Wiffen – Heritage scientist timeline
Tributes came in from around the world when Joan Wiffen died in 2009. Alongside colleague Ralph Molnar, Joan identified and published on the first dinosaur fossils in New Zealand. Joan rewrote the way we understand the country’s past. Joan achieved this fame as an amateur scientist, not a professional. She received numerous honours and awards, wrote scientific publications and popular books and had a documentary film made about her life. Yet all this only happened in the later part of her life.
Joan Wiffen, palaeontologist
Joan Wiffen (1922–2009) was a palaeontologist who studied the Cretaceous period in New Zealand. Joan discovered one of the first dinosaur fossils in New Zealand.
These were priceless treasures from the past – and, suddenly, I was hooked. I knew what I wanted – to collect fossils.
Joan Wiffen
Joan’s early life was typical of many women born in the 1920s. Her parents saw no need for further education, so Joan left school and worked as a clerk, got married, brought up two children and helped her husband on their small farm.
Pterosaur fossil
In 1988 Joan Wiffen published a co-authored paper on the first pterosaur fossil found in New Zealand. The ulna bone was found at Mangahouanga by Trevor Crabtree. The pterosaur fossil is held in GNS Science’s National Paleontology Collection.
It wasn’t until 1972 that a growing interest in rocks and fossils led Joan and her family to visit a remote valley in north-west Hawke’s Bay. Over more than 35 years, the Mangahuoanga Stream yielded many land and marine fossils from the Late Cretaceous period, including dinosaurs.
Joan Wiffen
Joan Wiffen was an example of a citizen scientist – someone who pursues science as a hobby rather than an occupation. Anyone can be a scientist provided they follow scientific protocols.
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With no formal scientific training, Joan learnt by experience – how to spot fossils, how to extract them from very hard rock, how to identify them and how to use the fossils to put together a picture of ancient New Zealand. She enlisted the help of dinosaur experts abroad (there were none in this country at the time) to carry out identifications and present findings in scientific journals and at conferences. To start with, being a woman with no scientific qualifications was a real drawback, so Joan concentrated on the fossils and their meaning, and gradually, she became accepted by the professional community. Her willingness to communicate her work to children and the general public also made her widely known. Joan ended up having more widespread recognition than most professional scientists.
The timeline below lets you see aspects of Joan's life and work, and how her findings changed scientific thinking. A full timeline transcript is here.
Joan Wiffen – paleontologist
- Changing scientific ideas
- Advances in science and technology
- Biography
- 1869
Prehistoric reptiles
Thomas Cockburn-Hood finds marine elasmosaur and mosasaur fossils in South Island.
- 1873
Hunting for dinosaurs
Geologist Alex McKay searches for fossils in the South Island. Finds fossils of marine reptiles, but no dinosaurs.
- 1922
Joan born
Brought up in King Country and Hawke’s Bay. Original surname is Pedersen, but she becomes well known later under her married name, Wiffen.
- 1938
Joins WAAF
Joins Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Continues to work as a clerk after leaving WAAF in 1944.
- 1953
Family and farming
Marries M A Wiffen, known as ‘Pont’, a technician at local radio station. They later move to small farm in Hawke’s Bay. Joan works on farm and in the home, bringing up two children. Pont continues with electronics work as well.
- 1955
Dinosaur fossil found
In 1955 geologist and palaeontologist Charles Fleming discovers a piece of bone in Mikonui Stream, Canterbury. Many decades later that piece of bone has been unofficially identified as that of a pterosaur. This date remains tentative as tangata whenua or others may have made earlier, unknown discoveries of pterosaur fossils.
- 1958
Reptile fossils reported
An oil company survey by Don Haw reports reptile fossils near the Mangahouanga Valley in Hawke’s Bay. No-one follows this up at the time, but it stimulates Joan Wiffen to search the area in the 1970s.
- 1960
Ancient Gondwana
Ancient continent of Gondwana thought to be made up of South America, Africa, India, Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. Dinosaur fossils have been found everywhere except Antarctica and New Zealand.
- 1961
Evening classes
Joan starts going to art evening class, while Pont does geology. Pont becomes ill, so Joan goes to geology in his place.
- 1963
Leave farm
Pont becomes very ill, so they leave the farm and move to Haumoana, on the coast near Clive, Hawke’s Bay.
- 1967
Where are New Zealand dinosaurs?
GNS Science
Charles Fleming suggests that dinosaur fossils may exist in New Zealand, they just haven’t been found yet.
- 1968
Visit Australia
After Pont’s recovery, they make long trip to Australia, including mineral and rock collecting. Joan gets ‘fossil hunting bug’, and family visits many New Zealand fossil sites over next few years.
- 1970
No dinosaurs in New Zealand
No dinosaur fossils have been found in New Zealand. Perhaps they never lived in this part of Gondwana, or they did live here but no evidence has been found yet.
- 1972
Mangahouanga
Julian Thomson, GNS Science
Joan and Pont Wiffen’s first trip to Mangahouanga, inland Hawke’s Bay. They find many fossils in Late Cretaceous rocks, including fish, shark, belemnites, molluscs.
- 1973
First fossil bone
Return visits continue to turn up many marine fossils, including species not found in New Zealand (or anywhere else) before. Pont finds first fossil bone (plesiosaur vertebra).
- 1974
Important finds
Find mosasaur skull (given scientific name Moanasaurus mangahouagae in 1980) and an unusual fossil that is later identified as toe bone of small dinosaur (therapod).
- 1974
Mangahouanga hut
Build hut to stay in when working at Mangahouanga, with other members of a growing team from the Hawke’s Bay Paleontological Group.
- 1975
New vertebra
The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
Fossil vertebra found, but unable to identify it. In 1979, Australian scientist Dr Ralph Molnar identifies it as from an ankylosaur.
- 1978
Plesiosaur skull
Complete skull of plesiosaur found, though not extracted from rock until 1984.
- 1980
Dinosaurs in New Zealand
Joan Wiffen’s discoveries and work to identify discoveries by colleagues and others, show dinosaurs lived in New Zealand after it split away from Gondwana in the Early Cretaceous.
- 1980
Gondwana evidence
Neville Gardner
Fossil leaves of Glossopteris found in Southland. This plant is used to identify lands once part of Gondwana.
- 1980
Dinosaur announcement
Dr Ralph Molnar gives first talk about dinosaur fossil finds in New Zealand at conference in Wellington – there are no local experts to do this. Little response from scientists, but great response from public.
- 1981
Turtle fossils
First Cretaceous turtle fossils in New Zealand described from Mangahouanga.
- 1983
Reptile finds
Lloyd Homer, GNS Science
Dr Ewan Fordyce of Otago University finds almost complete elasmosaur skeleton near Dunedin. Also plesiosaur and mosasaur fossils.
- 1983
Book published
Book Valley of the dragons is published – part autobiography, part description of dinosaurs and other fossils at Mangahouanga.
- 1986
Dinosaur in Antarctica
First dinosaur fossil (from an ankylosaur) found in Antarctica. This means that dinosaur fossils have now been found in all lands that once made up Gondwana.
- 1987
Flying reptile
The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
Trevor Crabtree finds this pterosaur fossil at Mangahouanga. It is identified and published by Joan Wiffen and Ralph Molnar in 1988.
Charles Fleming’s possible pterosaur bone found in 1955 has yet to be formally identified and described – until such a time, the Crabtree specimen will remain as the first dinosaur fossil found in Aotearoa.
- 1990
New mosasaurs
The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
Joan names two new species of mosasaur found at Mangahouanga – Rikisaurus tehoensis and Mosasaurus flemingi.
- 1994
Fossil review
With Ralph Molnar, Joan publishes an important review paper: A late Cretaceous polar dinosaur fauna from New Zealand .
- 1994
Awards
Joan receives honorary doctorate from Massey University and Science and Technology Bronze Medal from Royal Society of New Zealand.
- 1995
Jurassic dinosaur
Brendan Hayes’s single Jurassic fossil shows dinosaurs lived in New Zealand before it moved away from Gondwana.
- 1995
Jurassic dinosaur
Brendan Hayes finds single fossil bone from small therapod near mouth of Waikato River. This is the only Jurassic period dinosaur found in New Zealand, 70 million years older than the Hawke’s Bay fossils.
- 1995
CBE
Joan is made Commander of the British Empire.
- 1999
Titanosaur
The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
Joan finds fossil bone of titanosaur at Mangahouanga.
- 2001
Crocodiles and mammals
Trevor Worthy and an international team find new Miocene fossils in Central Otago. These include a crocodile and New Zealand’s earliest (tiny) mammal, which was not announced until 2006.
- 2002
Book and film
NZPA
Joan publishes book Dinosaur New Zealand with writer and artist Geoffrey Cox. Joan’s achievements celebrated in Red Sky’s documentary film The lost dinosaurs of New Zealand .
- 2003
Chatham Island dinosaurs
Jeffery Stilwell, Chris Consoli and others of Monash University, Melbourne, find fossil bones from small theropod dinosaur in Chatham Islands.
- 2004
American award
Joan receives Morris Skinner Award from US-based Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for her contributions to scientific knowledge.
- 2009
Dinosaurs widespread
Fossil bones in the Chatham Islands and fossil footprints near Nelson show dinosaurs were widespread in ancient New Zealand.
- 2009
Dinosaur footprints in New Zealand
GNS Science
Footprints of Late Cretaceous sauropods found near Nelson. First evidence of dinosaurs from South Island and first footprints in New Zealand. Find out more in this article, Ancient dinosaur footprints discovered near Nelson .
- 2009
Joan dies
Joan dies in Havelock North, aged 87. Tributes sent in from all round the world.
- 2010
Work to continue
Julian Thomson, GNS Science
Scientists from GNS visit Mangahouanga and meet with landowners to consider ways of continuing Joan’s investigations.
Joan Wiffen – paleontologist
This timeline lets you see aspects of Joan's life and work, and how these fit into a wider science picture of paleontology. A full transcript is underneath.
Joan Wiffen – paleontologist
This timeline lets you see aspects of Joan's life and work, and how these fit into a wider science picture of paleontology. A full transcript is underneath.
Acknowledging the fossil finder
In the acknowledgements to their 1988 paper, Joan Wiffen and Ralf Molnar cite and thank Trevor Crabtree for collecting the pterosaur ulna and making it available for study. Crabtree’s discovery still stands as the first formally identified pterosaur record from New Zealand.
Useful links
Watch this 1989 documentary Prehistoric life in New Zealand on the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision website. This film is a tribute to the work of Joan Wiffen.
The fossil that started the study of dinosaurs is one of Te Papa’s greatest treasures. In this YouTube video Dr Hamish Campbell shows us the very first artifact from the giant lizards.
Radio New Zealand National celebrated Joan Wiffen's life in this programme from Our Changing World .
GNS Science holds the National Paleontology Collection. It contains over 27,000 registered individual specimens and over 125,000 registered collection lots, with a total specimen number in the millions.
Discover more about Don Haw's early discoveries and how this stimulated Joan Wiffen to search the area in the 1970s in this 2022 Stuff news article The fossil man time and fame (almost) forgot.
