On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Flabellum aotearoa

Peter Marriott, Ocean Survey 20/20 – Bay of Islands
This specimen of Flabellum aotearoa Squires, 1964 was found in the Bay of Islands at 204 m. It is a stony coral in the phylum Cnidaria. You can see tentacles extending out of its stony skeleton in this image, which contain stinging cells (cnidocytes), a character of the phylum.