GNS Science held onto the fossil after palaeontologist Dr Hamish Campbell discovered it in 1978, but it was not properly studied until this year. "I was blissfully unaware that this fossil had come to the attention of the right people: vertebrate palaeontologists who know their stuff. "We [now] know the age of this fossil, and it's a lot older than the oldest known similar fossil from the Southern Hemisphere," Dr Campbell said. "It's a sauropterygian, so to translate that it means 'lizard flipper,' a marine reptile," Dr Campbell said. ADVERTISEMENT"There's potential to find more fossils in New Zealand because we have lots of rocks of this age," Dr Campbell said.
