Re: New Zealand

[Derek Tearne <derek@iprolink.co.nz>]

At 03:15 +0000 2/3/98, John V Jackson wrote:
>Thanks for replying, Derek:
>-Original Message--from D. Tearne---Date: 27 February 1998 23:43
>
>
>>>  (JJ said) When did New Zealand split off?
>>
>>New Zealand split from Gondwana sometime in the early cretaceous.
>
>Don't some say late K?

There's not very much (if any) early cretaceous record, most of what
I've read implies that we had split off (but hadn't moved far) by
the time the record begins again about 40 million years before the
end of the cretaceous.
>
>I am aiming at a theory that everything got wiped out on NZ at some time,
>and recolonised it later.  I can just about believe the tuatara, skinks and
>geckos could have floated there (despite the dodgy currents), but apparently
>NZ has loads of frogs too.  Could they have rafted?

There is a gap between the K-T bounday and the first tuatara in the
fossil record, that doesn't mean they weren't here all the time though.

I don't see any reason to invoke a scenario where the whole island
was toasted, and everything here now recolonised afterwards.  Why not
simply assume that the same kinds of animals survived here as survived
elsewhere - with the exception of the local mammals which were harder hit
here than other places?






---
Derek Tearne.   ---   @URL Internet Consultants  ---  http://url.co.nz
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.