Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to Fossil Treasures of the Geology Museum. We owe special thanks to Richard White (Manager, Copyright & Open Access) and Kate Thompson (Library Liaison Service & Subject Librarians: Law) from Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka – University of Otago who first gave us the idea of presenting Fossil Treasures as an eBook, and who have been generous guides throughout its production. We also thank Richard White for writing the first version of the Acknowledgement of mana whenua section of this eBook, and Frank Edwards (Associate University Librarian: Māori and Strategic Development) for providing guidance on that same section.
We are indebted to the many generations of academic and professional staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students, and visiting researchers and members of the public who have collected, identified, catalogued and described fossils housed in the University of Otago Geology Museum collections since the earliest days of the University. Growing and maintaining the collections is a community achievement that reflects the dedication of many students and other volunteers.
We wish to specifically acknowledge the contributions to the Geology Museum collections made by the late Emeritus Professor Ewan Fordyce FRSNZ, to whom this eBook is dedicated. Ewan’s paleontological field and laboratory investigations led to more than 200 publications, most of which addressed the morphology, taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) that are now part of our collections. In addition, Ewan worked on a wide range of other fossil vertebrates such as penguins, fish, turtles as well as a variety of invertebrates over his 40-year career at Otago.
Many of these fossils, especially the large vertebrates, were extracted from the rocks in which they were preserved with assistance from many people whom we have aimed to acknowledge directly in each of the relevant chapters. In addition, one fossil preparator, the late Andrew Grebneff (1959–2010) deserves special mention, as he worked with meticulous care on many of the specimens figured here from 1985 until 2010. More recently, we wish to acknowledge Sophie White, Dianne Nyhof, Marcus Richards and Shane Meekin who worked as preparators of some of the fossils.
We have greatly benefitted from the knowledge and support of our colleagues. Especially Dr Donald MacFarlan for advice on brachiopods and Dr Uwe Kaulfuss for co-writing the chapters on fossil insects. We thank readers and reviewers including Tatsuro Ando, Kane Fleury, Craig Jones, Dan Ksepka, Bill Lee, Donald MacFarlan, Cody Phillips, Sophie White and Yutong (Mike) Wu.
We thank Cody Phillips, Shannah Rhynard-Geil and Kane Fleury for bringing the Kaiwhekea katiki skull to the Department of Geology so that it could be 3D scanned.
Professor Andrew Gorman (Head of the Department of Geology) has been supportive of this project since its inception, along with all of our initiatives surrounding paleontology at Otago.
Lastly, we wish to thank Cushla, Catherine and Bill for their unfailing support and encouragement.
