1860 2020 14 Instructions]]> key ideas that change due to advances in science knowledge.]]> CHANGING
SCIENTIFIC IDEAS]]> ADVANCES IN SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY]]> BIOGRAPHY]]> has key ideas and ways of doing things. Over time, these ideas and techniques can be revised or replaced in the light of new research. Most changes to key science ideas are only accepted gradually, tested through research by many people.]]> and theories on the knowledge of earlier scientists, and their work will inform other scientists in the future. A scientist may publish hundreds of scientific reports, but only a few are mentioned here.]]> just a few events in the personal
life of the featured person, some of which influenced their work as a scientist.]]> 19600000 1960
Ancient continent of Gondwana thought to be made up of South America, Africa, India, Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. Dinosaur fossils have been found everywhere except Antarctica and New Zealand.]]> 19700000 1970
No dinosaur fossils have been found in New Zealand. Maybe they never lived in this part of Gondwana, or they did live here, but no evidence has been found yet.]]> 19800000 1980
Joan Wiffen’s discoveries show dinosaurs lived in New Zealand after it split away from Gondwana in the Early Cretaceous.]]> 19950000 1995
Brendan Hayes’s single Jurassic fossil shows dinosaurs lived in New Zealand before it moved away from Gondwana.]]> 20090000 2009
Fossil bones in the Chatham Islands and fossil footprints near Nelson show dinosaurs were widespread in ancient New Zealand.]]> 18690000 1869
Thomas Cockburn-Hood finds marine elasmosaur and mosasaur fossils in South Island.]]> 18730000 1873
Geologist Alex McKay searches for fossils in the South Island. Finds fossils of marine reptiles, but no dinosaurs.]]> 19580000 1958
An oil company survey by Don Haw reports reptile fossils near the Mangahouanga Valley in Hawke’s Bay. No-one follows this up at the time, but it stimulates Joan Wiffen to search the area in the 1970s.]]> 19670000 HS_IM_CharlesFleming_SLH_115x150_V2.jpg 1967
Charles Fleming suggests that dinosaur fossils may exist in New Zealand, they just haven’t been found yet.]]> 19800000 HS_IM_glossopt2_SLH_115x150.jpg 1980
Fossil leaves of Glossopteris found in Southland. This plant is used to identify lands once part of Gondwana.]]> 19830000 1983
Dr Ewan Fordyce of Otago University finds almost complete elasmosaur skeleton near Dunedin. Also plesiosaur and mosasaur fossils.]]> 19860000 1986
First dinosaur fossil (from an ankylosaur) found in Antarctica. This means that dinosaur fossils have now been found in all lands that once made up Gondwana.]]> 19950000 1995
Brendan Hayes finds single fossil bone from small therapod near mouth of Waikato River. This is the only Jurassic period dinosaur found in New Zealand, 70 million years older than the Hawke’s Bay fossils.]]> 20010000 2001
Trevor Worthy and an international team find new Miocene fossils in Central Otago. These include a crocodile and New Zealand’s earliest (tiny) mammal, which was not announced until 2006.]]> 20030000 2003
Jeffery Stilwell, Chris Consoli and others of Monash University, Melbourne, find fossil bones from small theropod dinosaur in Chatham Islands.]]> 20090000 2009
Footprints of Late Cretaceous sauropods found near Nelson. First evidence of dinosaurs from South Island and first footprints in New Zealand.]]> 20100000 HS_IM_Julianwithfossil_MangahouangaRiver_GNS_115x150.jpg 2010
Scientists from GNS visit Mangahouanga and meet with landowners to consider ways of continuing Joan’s investigations.]]> 19720000 HS_IM_MangahouangaRiver_Julian_GNS_150x115.jpg 1972
Joan and Pont Wiffen’s first trip to Mangahouanga, inland Hawke’s Bay. They find many fossils in Late Cretaceous rocks, including fish, shark, belemnites, molluscs.]]> 19730000 1973
Return visits continue to turn up many marine fossils, including species not found in New Zealand (or anywhere else) before. Pont finds first fossil bone (plesiosaur vertebra).]]> 19740000 1974
Find mosasaur skull (given scientific name Moanasaurus mangahouagae in 1980) and an unusual fossil that is later identified as toe bone of small dinosaur (therapod).]]> 19750000 HS_IM_Ankylosauria_Rib_Fossil_2_SLH_115x150.jpg 1975
Fossil vertebra found, but unable to identify it. In 1979, Australian scientist Dr Ralph Molnar identifies it as from an ankylosaur.]]> 19780000 1978
Complete skull of plesiosaur found, though not extracted from rock until 1984.]]> 19800000 1980
Dr Ralph Molnar gives first talk about dinosaur fossil finds in New Zealand at conference in Wellington – there are no local experts to do this. Little response from scientists, but great response from public.]]> 19810000 1981
First Cretaceous turtle fossils in New Zealand described from Mangahouanga.]]> 19870000 HS_IM_Pterosaur_Ulna_1_SLH_115x150.jpg 1987
Joan finds first pterosaur fossil at Mangahouanga. It is published by Joan and Ralph Molnar in 1988.]]> 19900000 HS_IM_MososaurFossilHead1_SLH_150x115.jpg 1990
Joan names two new species of mosasaur found at Mangahouanga – Rikisaurus tehoensis and Mosasaurus flemingi.]]> 19940000 1994
With Ralph Molnar, Joan publishes an important review paper: ‘A late Cretaceous polar dinosaur fauna from New Zealand’.]]> 19990000 HS_IM_TitanosaurFossil_3_SLH_115x150.jpg 1999
Joan finds fossil bone of titanosaur at Mangahouanga.]]> 19220000 1922
Brought up in King Country and Hawke’s Bay. Original surname is Pedersen, but she becomes well known later under her married name, Wiffen.]]> 19380000 1938
Joins Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Continues to work as a clerk after leaving WAAF in 1944.]]> 19530000 1953
Marries M A Wiffen, known as ‘Pont’, a technician at local radio station. They later move to small farm in Hawke’s Bay. Joan works on farm and in the home, bringing up two children. Pont continues with electronics work as well.]]> 19610000 1961
Joan starts going to art evening class, while Pont does geology. Pont becomes ill, so Joan goes to geology in his place.]]> 19630000 1963
Pont becomes very ill, so they leave the farm and move to Haumoana, on the coast near Clive, Hawke’s Bay.]]> 19680000 1968
After Pont’s recovery, they did some mineral and rock collecting during a 7-month stay in Australia. Joan gets ‘fossil hunting bug’, and family visits many New Zealand fossil sites over next few years.]]> 19740000 1974
Build hut to stay in when working at Mangahouanga, with other members of a growing team from the Hawke’s Bay Paleontological Group.]]> 19830000 HS_IM_Wiffen1983_LloydHomerGNS_Science_115x150.jpg 1983
Joan visits dinosaur fossil sites in America.]]> 19910000 1991
Book Valley of the dragons is published – part autobiography, part description of dinosaurs and other fossils at Mangahouanga.]]> 19940000 1994
Joan receives honorary doctorate from Massey University and Science and Technology Bronze Medal from Royal Society of New Zealand.]]> 19950000 1995
Joan is made Commander of the British Empire.]]> 20020000 HS_IM_JoanWiffen_115x150.jpg 2002
Joan publishes book Dinosaur New Zealand with writer and artist Geoffrey Cox. Joan’s achievements celebrated in Red Sky’s documentary film The lost dinosaurs of New Zealand.]]> 20040000 2004
Joan receives Morris Skinner Award from US-based Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for her contributions to scientific knowledge.]]> 20090000 2009
Joan dies in Havelock North, aged 87. Tributes sent in from all round the world.]]>