Dino-buff Wins US Accolade

Dr Joan Wiffen of Havelock North received the esteemed Morris Skinner Award from the US-based Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology at its 64th annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. According to the SVP website, the award is “for outstanding and sustained contributions to scientific knowledge through the making of important collections of fossil vertebrates.” Wiffen, an entirely self-taught palaeontologist and dinosaur expert, famously discovered fossils in a remote section of Mangahouanga Stream in northern Hawkes Bay. “Her contributions are extremely important nationally and give NZ geographic position, internationally, said Chris Hollis of NZ’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in the NZ Herald.