Princess Bay Fossils

Wellington greywacke with fossils! Surprisingly well-preserved trace fossils and tube fossils of organisms that lived on the sea floor in water depths of between 200 to 2,000 metres! The tube fossils have been identified as probable foraminifera (single celled animals) called Torlessia. The many trace fossils (burrows and feeding trails) were probably made by a variety of organisms living in the sediment on the sea floor such as crustaceans (shrimps, prawns, crabs), shellfish, fish, sea urchins and worms! There are even coprolites, which are the droppings of some of these creatures that lived 210 - 215 million years ago!

It is a challenge to identify these different fossil types. You should see a myriad of different coloured shapes on the surface of the rock. These shapes are random cross-sections through many fossils. Use the photos to help find them.