Field notebooks recently recovered from a late paleontologist have provided the crucial missing details researchers needed to complete a study of a remarkable fossil fish discovered nearly three decades ago.
The story began in 1999 when Dr. Richard Köhler uncovered the fossil during a research expedition to Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands.
While exploring the island's western coastline above Waihere Bay, Köhler spotted a three-dimensionally preserved, mummified fish fossil embedded in a steep section of cliff that was almost impossible to reach.
To recover it, he walked 3km back to his lodging in Flowerpot Bay to borrow a ladder. He then returned to the site and carefully extracted the fossil in several large, extremely heavy blocks.
Once back in Dunedin, Köhler brought the specimen to the University of Otago's Department of Geology. Emeritus Professor Daphne Lee recalls that she and the late Professor Ewan Fordyce immediately recognized its significance.
