Kaikorai Valley Fossil Leaf Beds

Located at the top (north end) Kaikorai Valley and at the end of the Frasers Road (Frasers Gully north side of Frasers Stream) Dunedin

Walk over sports field to bridge leading to Glenross St and crosses the Kaikorai Stream. Access can also be from Glenross St off Brockville RRoad.

The leaf beds are found predominantly on the NE side of the stream and is predominant just downstream of the foot bridge (photo A—next page). Further exposures can be found upstream for about 50m before they disappear into the stream bed.

Silt layering (photo B) can be found 20m downstream. No further outcrops has been located since writing as the area is made up of steep banks covered in grass with regenerating bush.

The leaf beds are undated but are expected to have formed during non eruptive phases during the Dunedin volcanic period 10-13 Ma (or late Miocene). The fine grained leaf beds are dominated by diatoms, indicating deposition over many years in still quite waters. Abundant beech pollen of the Nothofagus brassii group occurs in the leaf beds probably represents the extinct beech species N.novaezealandiae. Other fossils include cones of the she oak, Casusrina, and leaves of proteas, proteaceae.

A fossil galaxiid (whitebait) fish have also been found within the Kaikorai fossil leaf beds.

From - The Natural History of Southern New Zealand by Darby, Fordyce, Mark, Probert and Townsend University of Otago Press 2003.