| Brief Description |
This is the tip of a stingray spine, found by a Correspondence School pupil from a remote farm in the Ahu Ahu Valley north of Whanganui in 1996, when he was 10, while playing in the Ahu Ahu Stream. Early in 1998 he took it to the Museum for identification, and retired National Museum director Dr Richard Dell, after consulting with colleagues, informed him it differed from the other New Zealand stingrays and was probably a new species.
The donor was excited to have found such an important specimen, and donated it to this Museum for future study. Eventually, if more fossils are found, a biologist could use it to describe a new species, and would very likely name it after its discoverer.
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