James Crampton and dinosaur at Hong Kong airport. How else would a paleontologist occupy themselves while waiting for a delayed flight? null

Dinosaur footprints, thought to be about 70 million years old, have been discovered by a geologist working in the north-west Nelson region. The discovery of the...

Dinosaurs used to live in New Zealand. We know this because their fossils have been found in a few places. The fossils of a number of...

A team of fossil hunters has discovered that one of the largest known dinosaurs, a titanosaurid, almost certainly roamed New Zealand about 80 million years ago....

Sophie Thomson, 11, of Lower Hutt, with 70 million-year-old dinosaur footprints in sandstone rocks in north-west Nelson. null

Dr James Crampton, paleontologist at GNS Science, explains how relative dating was used to determine that dinosaur and other fossils found in north-west Hawke’s Bay were...

Geologist Dr Greg Browne, of GNS Science, and a 70 million-year-old dinosaur footprint in sandstone rock in north-west Nelson. null

Dr James Crampton takes you inside the National Paleontology Collection at GNS Science to see some of the dinosaur and marine reptile fossils found by Joan...

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. null...

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...

The times when dinoflagellates appeared and became extinct have been dated in deep-sea cores around the world. Their presence is used to date rocks containing dinosaur...

Many of us are familiar with some names for parts of Earth’s distant past. There’s the Jurassic, made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, and the...

Joan Wiffen and colleagues were famous for finding fossils at Mangahouanga Stream, in north-west Hawke’s Bay. Dr James Crampton, paleontologist at GNS Science, outlines some of...

Ferns are an ancient group of plants. By about 350 million years ago, ferns are seen in the fossil record. This makes ferns older than most...

The presence of these two fossil dinoflagellates in a rock can help date it to the late Cretaceous. The fossils are only about 200 µm long....

New Zealand plants are unique! New Zealand has some of the oldest primeval forests in the world, the largest type of moss and some of the...

An inquiry approach is a method often used in science education. The question bank provides an initial list of questions about measuring the age of rocks...

Energy comes from many sources, and to describe these sources we use two terms: renewable and non-renewable. Non-renewable energy resources cannot be replaced – once they...

A look at some of the historical changes in New Zealand’s unique ecosystems and steps being undertaken to protect it. 250 million years ago – One...

It is estimated there are currently 209 breeding bird species in Aotearoa New Zealand. How can we tell what bird species we are observing? All living...

In this activity, students date fossils from one site by matching them to fossils already dated somewhere else. They use real data from Mangahouanga, made famous...

There are ferns in most New Zealanders’ backyards and local environments. Ferns are green flowerless plants with divided leaves that tend to grow in damp, shady...

Citizen scientists are volunteers who participate in scientific projects. They work in partnership with scientists to answer interesting and relevant questions. When involved in environmental projects,...

‘Nano’ means small, right? Sort of. To scientists, ‘nano’ doesn’t just mean small. It means almost unimaginably small. A nanometre (nm) is a billionth of a...