Press Release – Canterbury Museum
The fossilised remains of a turtle that lived between 25 and 35 million years ago have been found inside a pillar from a historic Christchurch church.
The fossilised remains of a turtle that lived between 25 and 35 million years ago have been found inside a pillar from a historic Christchurch church.
Christchurch sculptor Paul Deans discovered the fossil embedded in the limestone core of a pillar from the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, which was built between 1881 and 1882.
When the church was demolished in 2011 after the Canterbury earthquakes, its iconic pillars were hollowed out so they could be reinforced and reinstated as part of the new building.
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