Biography: Wiffen, Joan

Cutting out the fossils

Joan Wiffen extracting fossils using a rock-cutting saw. Extracting a single specimen required up to 600 hours of work.

Using this item

Reference: PAColl-7327-1-129-Fossils-14/4-31 63

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

How to cite this page

Simon Nathan. 'Wiffen, Joan', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2018. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/47106/cutting-out-the-fossils (accessed 6 June 2026).