Re: NEW ZEALAND REVISITED

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

At 13:35 +0000 2/3/98, darren.naish@port.ac.uk wrote:
>The biogeography and fauna of NZ has been discussed much on this list
>previously - please look for this stuff in the archives: you will
>find what you're looking for.

That would be once in 1994, once in 1995 and three times in 1996 - There
doesn't seem to be anything in 1997 that I could find...

It's definately worth having a look though.  The address is
http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive -

>>>Did Moas & Kiwi walk there or fly there?
>
>>They could easily have walked.  There were dinosaurs in New Zealand
>>which clearly walked here, why not moas?

I meant to say Moa ancestors, sorry.

>Sphenodonts are probably best interpreted as Mesozoic relicts, as are
>>leopelmatid (=ascaphid) frogs.

I note you assume these were here all the time and yet you say:

>NZ's hoplodactyline geckos probably have invaded NZ after its
>separation - there is no evidence that hoplodactylines were living in
>the late Cretaceous -

I was under the impression there was no record for the sphenodon prior
to the Holocene.  I would not tend to assume the absence of a
particular creature from our fossil record to be much of an indication
of anything.  In the case of Sphenodon I guess its nearest relatives
were a considerable rafting distance, but then they're much hardier
beasts than geckos.

Or are you basing this on lack of evidence for the geckos anywhere?

Incidentally, there was an article in New Zealand geographic a
couple of years ago which featured a specimen of a giant gecko
found in a French collection unlabelled but who's closest affinities
were other New Zealand Geckos.  (I'm not implying that the specimen
rafted to France).

>Glaciation: NZ did indeed undergo something of a glaciation in the
>Oligocene, at the same time as it underwent a profound orogeny (the
>name of which I have forgotten).

We still have the glaciers and fiords to prove it!  (and that would be
the Kaikoura Uplift).






---
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.