Natural history of New Zealand
The natural history of New Zealand began when the landmass Zealandia broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana in the Cretaceous period. Before this time, Zealandia shared its past with Australia and Antarctica. Since this separation, the New Zealand landscape has evolved in physical isolation, although much of its current biota has more recent connections with species on other landmasses. The exclusively natural history of the country ended in about 1300 AD, when humans first settled, and the country's environmental history began.[1][2] The period from 1300 AD to today coincides with the extinction of many of New Zealand's unique species that had evolved there.
The break-up of
In the Duntroonian stage of the Oligocene, the land area of Zealandia was at a minimum. It has been suggested that water covered all of it,[7] but the consensus is that low-lying islands remained, perhaps a quarter of the modern land area of New Zealand.[5][8]
Before the split (Gondwana, 85 million years ago)
In the late Cretaceous, Gondwana was a fraction of its original size, however, the landmasses that would become Australia, Antarctica and Zealandia were still attached. Most of the modern 'Gondwanan fauna' had its origin in the Cretaceous. During this time Zealandia was temperate and almost flat, with no alpine environments.[9]
Gondwanan fauna
Fossils found at Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, suggest that 110 million years ago (Ma), Australia supported a number of different monotremes, but did not support any marsupials.[10] Marsupials appear to have evolved during the Cretaceous in the contemporary northern hemisphere, to judge from a 100-million-year-old marsupial fossil, Kokopellia, found in the badlands of Utah.[11] Marsupials would then have spread to South America and Gondwana. The first evidence of mammals (both marsupials and placental) in Australia comes from the Tertiary, and was found at a 55-million-year-old fossil site at Murgon, in southern Queensland.[12] As Zealandia had rifted away at this time it explains the lack of ground-dwelling marsupials and placental mammals in New Zealand's fossil record.
Dinosaurs continued to prosper but, as the angiosperms diversified, conifers, bennettitaleans and pentoxylaleans disappeared from Gondwana c. 115 Ma together with the specialised herbivorous ornithischians, whilst generalist browsers, such as several families of sauropodomorph Saurischia, prevailed. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event killed off all dinosaurs except birds, but plant evolution in Gondwana was hardly affected.[13] Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of non-therian mammals with a Gondwanan distribution (South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, and Antarctica) during the Late Cretaceous and Palaeogene.[14] Xenarthra and Afrotheria, two placental clades, are of Gondwanan origin and probably began to evolve separately c. 105 Ma when Africa and South America separated.[15]
Gondwanan flora
Rafting away (latest Cretaceous 85–66 Ma)
The Australia-New Zealand continental part of Gondwana split from Antarctica in the late Cretaceous (95–90 Ma). This was followed by Zealandia separating from Australia (c.85 Ma). The split started from the Southern end and eventually formed the Tasman Sea. By about 70 Ma, the continental crust of Zealandia separated from Australia and Antarctica. However, it is not known when the division of land above sea level occurred, and for some time only shallow seas would have separated Zealandia and Australia in the north. Dinosaurs continued to live in New Zealand and had about 10–20 million years to evolve unique species after they separated from Gondwana.[17]
In the Cretaceous, New Zealand was much further south (c.80 degrees south) than it is today, however, it and much of Antarctica was covered in trees as the climate of 90 Ma was much warmer and wetter than today.[18][19]
New Zealand's present native fauna does not contain land mammals (other than bats) or snakes. Neither
Swamps and rifting (Paleocene to Eocene 66 to 33.9 Ma)
At the start of the Paleocene New Zealand's biota was recovering from the extinction of dinosaurs, and the species that survived were expanding into the empty niches. There was a slight decrease in mean temperature at the start of the Paleocene, leading to a change in canopy species.[23] Zealandia was largely covered by shallow seas with low-lying land and swamps.[24][25] The oldest penguin fossil in the world and various other sea birds are found in New Zealand from this time.[26]
The Tasman Sea continued to expand until the early Eocene (53 Ma). The western half of Zealandia then along with Australia formed the Australian Plate (40 Ma). In response to this, a new plate boundary was created within Zealandia between the Australian Plate and Pacific Plate. This led to the formation of a subduction arc with active volcanism forming islands north and west of present New Zealand.[27] New Zealand was low lying due to this extension and swamps became widespread. Today these are recorded as large coal seams in the geological record.
The isolation of Antarctica and the formation of the
Whales were completely marine creatures by 40 Ma;[31] New Zealand oldest whale fossils are from 35 Ma.[32]
New Zealand's shallow seas (Oligocene 33.9 to 23 Ma)
From the early Oligocene, at maximum submersion of the Zealandia landmass, almost all New Zealand's rocks are marine. Oligocene terrestrial sediments are few, scattered, and not well-dated.
It has been suggested that at some point, Zealandia was entirely underwater, and consequently all land biota would be descended from later immigrants.
Significant uplift occurred by the mid-Oligocene (~32–29 Ma) in the modern Canterbury Basin, where palaeochannels eroded through the early Oligocene Amuri Limestone lead eastwards to the present Bounty Trough.[36]
The North and South island have been separate for most of the last 30 million years, allowing for the development of separate subspecies.[22]
The Southern Alps, Foulden Maar and Saint Bathans Fauna (Miocene – Pliocene 23 to 2.6 Ma)
Major uplift occurred on the Alpine Fault, which started to form the hills and the mountains that became the Southern Alps.
The
The boundaries defining the Pliocene are not set at an easily identified worldwide event but rather at regional boundaries between the warmer Miocene and the relatively cooler Pliocene. The upper boundary was set at the start of the Pleistocene glaciations. Uplift intensified on the Alpine Fault forming the Southern Alps. This global cooling coupled with an increase in elevation led to the local extinction of many groups of plants, which are now still found in New Caledonia.[42] The new niches created in the mountains were filled with migrants from Australia and species that could evolve quickly.
The Taupo Volcanic Zone and ice age (Pleistocene - Holocene 2.6 Ma to today)
The ice age began 2.6 Ma, at the start of the
Since the
See also
References
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- ^ a b c Wallis, GP, Jorge, F. (2018). "Going under down under? Lineage ages argue for extensive survival of the Oligocene marine transgression on Zealandia". Mol Ecol. 27: 4368– 4396. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14875
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- ^ Fordyce, R. Ewan. "Waimanu – 60-million year old penguins from New Zealand". Department of Geology, University of Otago. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
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- Graham, I. J. (2015). A Continent on the Move: New Zealand Geoscience Revealed. Geoscience Society of New Zealand. ISBN 9781877480478.