Tuataras proved unsinkability of New Zealand
Researchers found ancient tuatara remains in New Zealand, which forced them to revise history of the country. Having studied petrified ancient tuatara’s jaw, the scientists concluded that islands of New Zealand have never fully went under water (which was until now the most common theory).
You can read more about Tuataras in my article titled Tuatara – The surviving Dinosaur
Current Theory
According to current theory, about 500 million years ago New Zealand was part of a giant continent Gondwana. Approximately 167 million years ago Gondwana started cracking, forming a smaller continents. New Zealand, Antarctica and Australia have long been connected to each other. It is believed that New Zealand has begun its separate life at about 130-85 million years ago. According to one theory, some 25-22 million years ago, it fully plunged under water, but later resurfaced. Such a conclusion was made due to the fact that in New Zealand haven’t been found fossils belonging to that period.
New Exciting Foundings
The discovery of this petrified ancient tuatara’s jaw by scientists who worked under the leadership of Marc Jones from University College London forces to revise this theory. Location of the teeth traces found in the remains of the jaw points to only one group of reptiles – tuataras. Age of discovery dates back to the period when New Zealand supposedly was under water.
The owner of discovered jaw must have got to the island after its resurfacing. Animals would have swam to New Zealand through the ocean. It is unlikely that tuataras could survive such a journey. In addition, in Australia, which is the only possible location from which these animals could arrive, remnants of tuataras have never been found.
The Alternative
The researches of UCL put forward an alternative version New Zealand’s past. In their view, it wasn’t completely plunged under water. Animals and plants survived on the dry parts of the islands. Scientists suggest that dry surface could be a very small part of New Zealand – up to one percent of its current territory. As proof of this assumption scientists point to Stephens Island. It has an area a thousand times less than one-hundredth part of New Zealand (!), but more than a thousand tuataras are living there.
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