Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Farewell to Mike Gottfried - annual NZ research visit

Today is visiting paleoichthyologist Dr. Mike Gottfried's last day on his research visit to our department. Mike comes down to New Zealand once a year during the southern winter to collaborate on various research projects with Ewan. Prior projects have resulted in the description of an associated dentition and vertebral column of the giant shark Carcharocles angustidens, the giant moonfish Megalampris keyesi, and the billfish Aglyptorhynchus hakataramea.


Mike's current visit has been to identify Paleogene sharks and fish collected during the Lost Mammals of Zealandia project, in addition to describing a new genus and species of Cretaceous-Paleogene tarpon from the Chatham Islands (in tray in photograph). It's always a pleasure to have Mike down here, least of which because it's always nice to commiserate with another Yankee, but also nice to have someone to talk about fossil sharks. I'll be graduated before Mike's next visit to New Zealand, so farewell Mike! Have fun stateside.

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