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Late scientist's notebooks help finish study of rare 55-million-year-old tarpon fossil
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-late-scientist-notebooks-finish-rare.html
Researchers Emeritus Professor Daphne Lee and Dr Jeffrey Robinson in the Department of Geology with a 55-million-year-old tarpon fossil fish, which was discovered by the late Dr Richard Kohler on Pitt Island. They hold a painting of the fish, created by former Otago student Dr Seabourne Rust. Credit: University of Otago
Recently-revealed notebooks belonging to a late paleontologist contain the missing information needed to help researchers finish their study of a remarkable fossil discovered nearly three decades ago.
In 1999, Dr. Richard Kohler found the fossil fish during a research trip to Pitt Island, in the Chatham Islands. He saw the three-dimensionally preserved, mummified fossil in an almost unreachable section of cliff above Waihere Bay, on the western coast of the island.
Kohler walked 3 km back to his accommodation in Flowerpot Bay to borrow a ladder and returned to the area to carefully retrieve the fossil in several large and very heavy blocks. Back in Dunedin, he took the fossil to the University of Otago's Department of Geology where Emeritus Professor Daphne Lee says she and the late Professor Ewan Fordyce were "suitably impressed" by the find.
"It was quite unlike any other fish fossil known from Aotearoa New Zealand," Lee says.
. . .
In 1999, Dr. Richard Kohler found the fossil fish during a research trip to Pitt Island, in the Chatham Islands. He saw the three-dimensionally preserved, mummified fossil in an almost unreachable section of cliff above Waihere Bay, on the western coast of the island.
Kohler walked 3 km back to his accommodation in Flowerpot Bay to borrow a ladder and returned to the area to carefully retrieve the fossil in several large and very heavy blocks. Back in Dunedin, he took the fossil to the University of Otago's Department of Geology where Emeritus Professor Daphne Lee says she and the late Professor Ewan Fordyce were "suitably impressed" by the find.
"It was quite unlike any other fish fossil known from Aotearoa New Zealand," Lee says.
The late Dr Richard Kohler points to a fossil fish he found on Pitt Island. The fossil is the subject of a new research paper. Credit: University of Otago
. . .