This article by Dr Nic Rawlence was originally published under the title Proposal to mine fossil-rich site in New Zealand sparks campaign to protect it. Dr Rawlence is a senior lecturer in ...
Old rat bones provided scientists from Landcare Research and Oxford University with clues about human settlement in New Zealand. The scientists used radiocarbon dating to work out how old the ...
“How old is it?” is one of the first questions you’ll probably ask when you see an interesting rock or fossil. It’s certainly one of the first things that a geologist wants to know. As you’ll ...
In this activity, students date fossils from one site by matching them to fossils already dated somewhere else. They use real data from Mangahouanga, made famous by paleontologist Joan Wiffen. By ...
In this activity, students use the Ake Ake model to explore changes that have taken place in their local environment in the last 50–100 years and to plan for the next 50 years. By the end of this ...
In this activity, students listen to AgResearch’s Dr Matthew Barnett, the singing scientist, performing his latest YouTube release called I love fibre. Students then answer sets of questions and ...
By comparing some features of fossilised plants with the same features of plants living today, scientists hope to be able to learn more about the effect of changing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in ...
Be part of a worldwide movement and use Global Earth Challenge to submit or classify photos to help our planet’s environment and human health. Global Earth Challenge is a citizen science campaign ...
This citizen science project wants your assistance to extract information from various climate scientific graphics to help combat misinformation and support scientific communication. Using this ...
Water has unusual properties that make it different to other liquids. It is the only common substance that is naturally found as a solid (ice), liquid (water) or gas (water vapour). Water has the ...
Fire is generally portrayed as frightening and destructive by the media. Humans have increasingly been able to manage fire by improved detection ability and improved fire control methods. In the ...
About 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by water. It is found just about everywhere and is the only naturally occurring substance on Earth existing in solid, liquid and gas states. Water is ...
Professors Jane Francis and Matt Huber explain how fossilised plants are one of several proxies used to form a picture of past climates and ecosystems.
Joan Wiffen and colleagues were famous for finding fossils at Mangahouanga Stream, in north-west Hawke’s Bay. Dr James Crampton, paleontologist at GNS Science, outlines some of the marine ...
Dr James Crampton, paleontologist at GNS Science, explains how relative dating was used to determine that dinosaur and other fossils found in north-west Hawke’s Bay were from the Cretaceous ...
This timeline lets you see aspects of Joan's life and work, and how these fit into a wider science picture of paleontology. A full transcript is underneath.
Absolute dating methods give rocks an actual date or date range in numbers of years. This interactive explores four different methods used in absolute dating.
An interactive on rural fire risk – environmental components.
