Shell fossils from the Māngere Shellbed fossil fauna.
Not only is the age of these marine fossils a problem for creationism, so is the composition. It's a central dogma of creationism that all fossil deposits and rock strata are the result of a single genocidal flood in which 'all living substance' was destroyed - including and especially terrestrial animals, so any deposit of fossils resulting from that alleged flood should contain terrestrial species and plants. Not only that, but they should be from all over the globe, not just the local fauna because in a global flood there would be no barriers and dead animals would be free to float anywhere.
And yet here we have a fossil deposit consisting wholly of marine species from a particular time, found in a narrow range of habitats local to New Zealand at that time. There are no Eurasian, African or American species and not even any Australian species - from just a short float away.
The fossils were found by workers laying a new wastewater pipeline in a major civil engineering project. The find and its significance is described in research paper in the Taylor & Francis journal New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics and an accompanying news release by Taylor & Francis:
Auckland wastewater pipe dig reveals ‘fossil treasure trove’Technical detail is given in the team's open access paper in New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics:
Fossils of the world’s oldest known flax snails, an extinct sawshark spine, and great white shark teeth have all been found in a mound of sand excavated from beneath Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2020. A new New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics paper out today describes the 266 fossil species as one of the richest and most diverse groups of three-million-year-old fauna ever found in New Zealand. At least ten previously unknown species will be described and named in future research.
Fossil treasure trove from Auckland’s Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant
In 2020, when Auckland’s Watercare were excavating two huge vertical shafts for a major upgrade of the major pipeline that brings raw sewage for treatment from the central city they dug through an ancient shell bed. Auckland paleontologist Bruce Hayward likened it to “finding gold right on your door step”. Once they were informed of the fossil deposit’s significance, Watercare and their contractors were eager to help and a huge heap of shelly sand was dumped in a nearby paddock so that paleontologists could search through it over many months. Watercare also funded two paleontology graduate students, working under the supervision of Auckland Museum curator Dr Wilma Blom, to painstakingly sift through the heap for many weeks. As a result, it is estimated that over 300,000 fossils were examined and several thousand have been returned in the museum as a record of this “once-in-a-lifetime find”.
In their scientific paper that appeared this week in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, the five authors record 266 different fossil species, making it the richest and most diverse fauna of its age ever found in New Zealand.Detailed identification of the fossils shows that they were deposited between 3 and 3.7 million years ago in a subtidal channel in an early version of the modern Manukau Harbour. At that time, sea level was slightly higher than it is today as the world was also several degrees warmer than now. As a result, the fossils include a number of subtropical species, whose relatives today live in the warmer waters around the Kermadec and Norfolk islands. At least ten previously unknown species are present and will be described and named in future work.
What is surprising is that the fauna contains fossils that lived in many different environments that have been brought together in the ancient marine channel by wave action and strong tidal currents. It includes ten specimens of the iconic NZ flax snail that must have lived on the adjacent land and been washed down into the sea by storm runoff. These are by far the oldest known flax snails in the world. Most of the fossils lived on the sea floor, some in brackish estuaries, others attached to hard rocky shorelines and still more have been carried in from offshore of the exposed west coast at the time.
Rare finds have included isolated baleen whale vertebrae, a broken sperm whale tooth, the spine of an extinct sawshark, dental plates of eagle rays and a number of great white shark teeth.
Dr Bruce W Hayward, lead author
Geomarine Research
Auckland, New Zealand
The work has been dedicated to Dr Alan Beu, New Zealand’s leading molluscan fossil expert, who was working on the fossils when he passed away earlier this year.
AbstractOf course, creationists are used to living in a world in which 99.9975% of its history took place before it existed, so the presence of these fossils only 3,000,000 years before their putative creator created life should present them with little difficulty. Only the creation cult requires its dupes to dismiss just about all the evidence that science reveals about the universe they believe their god created.
Excavations at Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant, Auckland, in 2020 provided New Zealand’s richest and most diverse fossil faunas of mid-Pliocene age (Waipipian Stage, 3.7–3.0 million years old). The vast excavated heap of sandy shell was extensively searched and sieved resulting in the recovery of 266 fossil taxa, (particularly rich in Mollusca including 77 Bivalvia, 105 Gastropoda, 32 Foraminifera, 13 Ostracoda, 11 Bryozoa). The fauna includes several undescribed taxa and additional warm-water Pliocene records for New Zealand. The fauna is most similar in composition and age to the fauna obtained from the Otahuhu Brewery well in the late 1940s. The fauna contains a mixture of taxa from many different shallow marine habitats, from intertidal and subtidal rocky shores and intertidal and shallow subtidal soft sediment flats to exposed and semi-exposed subtidal sandy habitats down to depths of 30–40 m. The shelly deposit is inferred to have accumulated in a current swept subtidal channel during one of the mid-Pliocene warm periods when sea level was high and had flooded an incised river valley that flowed from east to west across the Auckland region.
Figure 4. Diagram of a simplified Manukau embayment during the Pliocene showing the interpreted location of deposition of sediment at various depths in the shafts (in white boxes) and the sources of the various components of the Māngere Shellbed fauna (32–40 m) that is inferred to have been deposited in a wide, subtidal, current-swept channel inside the embayment.
Figure 5. Some of the more common species in the Māngere Shellbed fossil fauna. Auckland Museum catalogue numbers in brackets. A. Glycymerita (Manaia) manaiaensis (MA166467); B. Maoricrypta profunda (MA166482): C. Struthiolaria (Callusaria) arthritica (MA166475); D. Alcithoe arabicula (MA166569); E. Tawera duobrunnea (MA166506); F. Polinices waipipiensis (MA166476); G. Glycymeris (Glycymerula) modesta (MA166562); H. Maoricardium spatiosum [MA126260]; I. Gari aucklandica [MA166558]; J. Xymene coctor (MA166548); K. Miltha neozelanica (MA166485); L. Crassostrea ingens (MA166551); M. Paphies n. sp. aff. subtriangularis; N. Austrovenus tamakiensis (MA166468). Scale bars = 2 cm, except where stated otherwise.
Figure 6. Some of the less common but more distinctive species in the Māngere Shellbed fossil fauna. Auckland Museum catalogue numbers in brackets. A. Turbo (Sarmaticus) sp. operculum (MA166535); B. Scutus breviculus (MA166473); C. Zeacumantus lutulentus (MA166536); D. Lima waipipiensis (MA166510); E. Fellaster zelandiae (MA166566); F. Nerita sp. (MA166500); G. Cellana radians (MA166529); H. Platyhelia distans (MA166524); I. Janthina typica (MA166478); J. Fissidentalium zelandicum (MA166464); K. Amphibalanus variegatus (MA166565); L. Barbatia novaezealandiae (MA166498); M. Coelotrochus bibaphus; N. Reishia? n. sp.; O. Purpurocardia penerectangularis (MA166497); P. Scutellastra kermadecensis (MA166455); Q. Oculina virgosa (MA166521); R. Carcharodon carcharias (MA166446); S. Lutraria grandis (MA166556). Scale bars = 2 cm, except where stated otherwise.
Bruce W. Hayward, Thomas F. Stolberger, Nathan Collins, Alan G. Beu & Wilma Blom (2023)
A diverse Late Pliocene fossil fauna and its paleoenvironment at Māngere, Auckland, New Zealand,
New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, DOI: 10.1080/00288306.2023.2243234
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by Taylor & Francis (Informa UK Ltd). Open access
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
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