On Jamuary 14th, 1948, a 14-year-old Nelson schoolboy discovered the oldest fossils ever found in New Zealand. Malcolm Simpson was a member of the party that accompanied University of Otago geologist Noel Benson on an expedition to the Cobb Valley, near Motueka.
During the trip, Simpson hammered off some fresh limestone containing indistinct fossils and passed it to Professor Benson, who initially thought the fossils were indistinguishable molluscan remains.
After returning to Dunedin, Benson discovered the samples contained trilobites – a fossil group of extinct marine arthropods. Intrigued, he sent them to the Geological Survey of Great Britain for identification. Three months later, an excited Benson telephoned Simpson to let him know that they were Cambrian fossils from the Paleozoic era (542–251 million years ago) – making them the oldest rocks yet found in New Zealand.
In 1998, on the 50th anniversary of the find, the Geological Society of New Zealand awarded Simpson the Wellman Prize for his contribution to palaeontology.
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