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NUMBER 89 89
NZA 797,1930,1934
Unconsolidated yellow-brown drift sand
/— *_ Chocolate/purple-brown, consolidated, paleosol
surface grading down to paler, creamy-brown,
more friable sand
* NZA 1931, 2602, 3245
NZA 3239,3246 * Older paleosol of dark brown consolidated sand.
Radiocarbon dates indicate lateral equivalence with
ephemeral dune-lake deposits
NZA 1929,1935,
2632,3238
Evaponte deposits (carbonate-cemented sands)
Ephemeral dune-lake deposits (-2 m a.s.l.)
FIGURE 2.—Schematic stratigraphic cross section of dune sands at Long Beach (localities 3, 4). Locations of
radiocarbon-dated samples (including those from comparable stratigraphic horizons at other sites within the
same dune series) are marked by asterisks (*) and are identified by their Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory reference
(NZA) numbers.
Unconsolidated pale gray drift sand
Compact midden shell layer (20-40 cm thick)
Black-brown, peaty soil with some midden shell, fish
• NZA 2614 bones, bird bones and occasional pebbles, grading down
to brown dune sand at its base (-70-80 cm depth)
* NZA 1982, 2609,
3189,3287
* NZA 3190
Orange-brown sand/paleosol grading down to paler, less
consolidated, fine sand
Erosional deflation surface exposed laterally (especially in
areas where dune sands have not been protected by overlying
midden shell layers)
FIGURE 3.—Schematic stratigraphic cross section of the Eastern Maunganui Dunes (locality 11), drawn from a
photograph. Locations of radiocarbon-dated samples (including those from comparable stratigraphic horizons at
other sites within the same dune series) are marked by asterisks (*) and are identified by their Rafter Radiocarbon
Laboratory reference (NZA) numbers.
extensive blow-out deflation hollows. These noncultural death
assemblages represent birds whose remains were buried relatively
quickly after death by drift sand and were thus preserved
as fossils, but no doubt the bones of many more, which were
not so fortuitously interred, have decayed completely.
1 m
In low-lying areas, where ephemeral dune lakes probably
once existed (Figure 2), the most common bird remains are
those of the extinct Chatham Island Coot {Fulica chathamensis;
see Andrews, 1896c; Millener 1980, 1981), the extinct
swan {Cygnus sumnerensis), and various species of duck. A
1 m