A Taranaki fossil collector has been credited with the world-first discovery of a new species of petrel – his second major find of a new species dating back 3.4 million years. Tennyson found the fossil remains, after studying 155 petrel skeletons, were of a new petrel species from the Procellaria genus, and estimated to be 3.4 million years old dating back to the Pliocene Age. It's the second new species Buchanan-Brown has uncovered. SUPPLIED/Te Papa The skeletal fossil of a previously undiscovered new species of petrel found on a Taranaki beach. “At the time it was the high point of my fossil hunting.”Tennyson’s research paper of Buchanan-Brown’s petrel discovery has since been published by the University of São Paulo Museum of Zoology, Brazil.

Source: Stuff February 21, 2021 16:30 UTC