Ancient shelled creatures have survived and thrived in the waters of Aotearoa.

Long, long ago I was an undergraduate student learning about paleontology. One of the joys of studying fossils is that you discover kinds of ancient life that you had never heard of. I was particularly taken by the so-called “lamp shells”, scientifically known as brachiopods. That’s Greek for “arm-foot”, which is quite apt, as we shall see. I was able to study very interesting fossil brachiopods, but never was able to find a living one — in the oceans of the northern hemisphere they are rare and found only at great depths.

So I was really excited when I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand, where snorkellers can see living brachiopods. Not only that, but you can just pick up dead brachiopod shells on the beach. There are not many places in the world where you can do that!…