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Curio Bay Fossil Forest sign, Curio Bay, Catlins, 24 December 2007

This forest grew in the Jurassic period, about 160,000,000 years ago, in a semi-tropical climate and consisted mainly of trees like the kauri and lesser trees such as cycads and conifers, as well as fernlike plants. Grasses and flowering plants had not yet come into existence.

The forest occupied the low swampy coast of a land that once extended south from this point. The coast continued north-west from this area across northern southland, and most of the rest of New Zealand was beneath the sea.

The forest was killed suddenly by being buried under a flood of ash from a volcanic eruption on the ancient land, and the ash now forms the hard sandstone beds in the cliff edges. Long after the ancient land disappeared and present New Zealand emerged, these sandstone strata were cut back by the action of the sea, to reveal the broken logs and the stumps still in the original position of growth. The present rock shelf around the stumps is the original floor of the Jurassic forest.

Known fossil forests of this age are very few throughout the world, and this is the most varied and remarkable of them all.

This forest is absolutely protected and it is an offence to damage or destroy it in any way or to remove any souvenirs from it.

Original size: 2592x1944
Timestamp: 2007:12:24 20:58:56
Exposure time: 1/60 s