A find of tiny prehistoric moa bones has Waikato locals hoping they have discovered a Jurassic wonderland.
Workers in Raglan discovered what could be one of the earliest examples of a moa bone and one man believes the find could indicate a wealth of prehistoric remains.
And although the bones are only small, their finder Fred Litchwark says that actually increases their importance.
"I think because it is small it is a good indication that it's ancient. More than a million years ago, moas were quite small and through evolution they got bigger." xx?
Paleontologist Hamish Campbell is excited too, but says it will take many tests to determine how impressive the find really is.
"[If it's] older than two million years, we would be very interested indeed!"
A recent clean up of Raglan's waterways reduced sediment in the
harbour, and led to the discovery that has Litchwark excited.
"I had a look at it and thought it's not a cow's bone, and it's not
human and I recall seeing this particular type of bone on display
at Te Papa attached to the skeleton of an old moa," he says.
The moa is not the first prehistoric find in the area- other discoveries include a scallop or maybe oyster shell.
The rich fossil findings in the area come from a massive vein of jurassic rock underneath the Raglan harbour.
Litchwark believes he has seen some spectacular fossils in the area, including a prehistoric penguin. He is hoping that come low tide and some better weather the moa bones will just be the first of some spectacular discoveries.
But the bone that has possibly survived more than a million years and sparked all the excitement came close to extinction itself after it passed into human hands.
"We did a bit of fishing and I put it in my pocket to look after
it so it didn't get stood on and caught a big fish, got carried
away and sat on it," Litchwark says.
He says he plans to hand it to the local museum to make sure it is
well looked after.
