Dedication

R. Ewan Fordyce examines a composite skeleton of bones assembled from two species of Kairuku fossil penguin. Image credit: RE Fordyce. See: When penguins were giants with spear-like bills.

We dedicate this eBook to Dr R. Ewan Fordyce (1953-2023), an inspirational figure who joined the Department of Geology at the University of Otago in 1983. Over time Dr Fordyce became Associate Professor, Professor, FRSNZ, Emeritus Professor. But this eBook is dedicated to that young Dr Fordyce of the 1980s. He had little idea of just how impactful and inspirational his passion for nature would be, and how his path would transform the Geology Museum within the Department of Geology into a globally-recognised centre for fossil vertebrate research.

That early Dr Fordyce didn’t have a clue about the great legacy he would leave. But he knew that his position in the Department of Geology and the connection with the Geology Museum it provided brought wonderful opportunities to build meaningful relationships with hundreds of people across Otago and around the world. And by nurturing these relationships Dr Fordyce would build a rich network of friends and colleagues, with whom he would discover and describe fossils that would radiate scientific impact around the world. That early Dr Fordyce reminds us that by staying true to our curiosity and holding people at the centre of what we do, we can achieve great things.

A huge proportion of this eBook are descriptions of those ‘great things’. And so we owe a lot to the curiosity and hard work of Ewan. Emeritus Professor R. Ewan Fordyce FRSNZ. Colleague and dearly missed friend.

—Daniel, Jeffrey and Daphne