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Origin of New Zealand

  • Gondwana starts to form as part of Pangaea
    600 BCE

    Gondwana starts to form as part of Pangaea

    600 MYA
    Gondwana is created by volcanism. The area that will become New Zealand is a only a sea basin between what will become Eastern Australia and Western Antarctica.
  • Cambrian - First organisms with shells
    550 BCE

    Cambrian - First organisms with shells

    590 - 505 MYA
    During the Cambrian period, Organisms with shells began to appear with Trilobites being dominant towards the end of the period.
  • Ordovician - First fish appears
    475 BCE

    Ordovician - First fish appears

    505 - 438 MYA
    During the Ordovician period, the first primitive fish began to appear.
  • Silurian - First land plant fossils
    425 BCE

    Silurian - First land plant fossils

    438 - 408 MYA
    During the Silurian period, the first land plant fossils appeared, were probably relatives of the mosses, liverworts and hornworts of today.
  • Devonian - The first Amphibians appeared
    375 BCE

    Devonian - The first Amphibians appeared

    408 - 360 MYA
    During the Devonian period, the first amphibians/land living invertibrates such as lizard and frog like organisms which are possibly ancestral to todays amphibians.
  • Misisissippian - The appearence of large primitive trees
    350 BCE

    Misisissippian - The appearence of large primitive trees

    360 - 320 MYA
    During the Mississippian period, vast numbers of large primitive trees grew. It is also 1 of 2 sub-periods to the Carboniferous period.
  • End of an ice age
    300 BCE

    End of an ice age

    350 - 200 MYA
    Eroded sediments washed by melt water settle into the sea basin.
  • Coal forests, insects and reptiles
    300 BCE

    Coal forests, insects and reptiles

    320 - 286 MYA
    During the Pennsylvanian period, Great coal forests, an abundence in insects and the first reptiles appeared.
    Its is also 1 of 2 parts sub-periods to the Carboniferous period.
  • Permian - The extinction of multiple species
    275 BCE

    Permian - The extinction of multiple species

    286 - 248 MYA
    During the Permian period, organisms such as Trilobites and many other marine animals went extinct.
    The mass extinction killed off more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial life.
  • Triassic - The First dinosaurs have appeared
    225 BCE

    Triassic - The First dinosaurs have appeared

    248 - 213 MYA
    During the Triassic period, the first dinosaurs appeared, one know as the Batrachopus. This was shortly after the extinction during the Permian period.
  • Pangaea starts to break up
    175 BCE

    Pangaea starts to break up

  • Jurassic - The appearence of many more creatures
    175 BCE

    Jurassic - The appearence of many more creatures

    213 - 144 MYA
    During the Jurassic period, the first birds and mammals appeared. Along with the abundance many dinosuars, ranging from ground dinosuars to the ones that fly.
  • New Zealand appears above the sea
    150 BCE

    New Zealand appears above the sea

    200 - 150 MYA New Zealand appears above the sea due to upthrust of the plate and volcanism..
  • Gondwana starts to break up
    130 BCE

    Gondwana starts to break up

    150 - 130 MYA Gondwana starts to breakup due to sea floor up-thrust and volcanism.
  • Cretaceous - The extinction of many species and the first flowers
    100 BCE

    Cretaceous - The extinction of many species and the first flowers

    144 - 66 MYA
    During the Cretaceous period, one of the biggest mass extinctions occured.
    Along with the first flowering plants and the climax of the dinosaurs.
  • Warmer climate in New Zealand
    100 BCE

    Warmer climate in New Zealand

    Warmer climate in New Zealand. There is evidence that The ancestors of kauri, tuatara, ferns, flowering plants, deciduous trees, conifers, spiders, snails and frogs were present. there was no evidence that mammals got to New Zealand. If they did they would have been a small population who have since died out.
  • Tertiary - Mammals began to develop
    50 BCE

    Tertiary - Mammals began to develop

    66 - 2 MYA
    During the Tertiary period, the mammals began to develop. Examples of these mammals were marsupial and placental, such as primates, bats and rodents.
    Some of these mammals became dominant species.
  • Volcanism in Auckland
    25 BCE

    Volcanism in Auckland

    25 - 26 MYA volcanism​ created what will be Auckland in West n of north = land uplift
  • 10 BCE

    NZ is one land mass

    New Zealand I one landmass, consisting of dense forest. subduction starts on the west coast of the pacific plate. Uplift of Tararua's + Ruahine 18 km up.
  • Inter-glacial Cycles
    5 BCE

    Inter-glacial Cycles

    5-2 MYA
    3 MYs of repeated cycles of glacial - inter-glacial cycles.
  • S.ALPS began to form
    5 BCE

    S.ALPS began to form

    the southern alps began to form causing uplift, creating different environments. such as the west coast being wet and the east coast being dry and warm.
  • Volcanic Plateau
    3 BCE

    Volcanic Plateau

    3 MYA Volcanic Plateau start to erupt
  • Cook Strait Forms
    2 BCE

    Cook Strait Forms

    2 MYA
    Sea level rose
    North and South Island separated by the Cook Strait
  • Quaternary - The appearance of hominids
    1 BCE

    Quaternary - The appearance of hominids

    2 - 0.011 MYA
    During the Quaternary period, the first hominids began to develop.
    Homosapiens and giant mammals began to inhabit the earth, either carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous, which all fought over dominance.
  • Tararua and Manawatu Gorge
    1 CE

    Tararua and Manawatu Gorge

    1 MYA
    Sea level at Tararua (Woodville) and Manawatu gorge was a strait.
    Climate cooled. Sea level decreasing. Glaciers formed. Tararua rise due to uplift.
  • Climate warmed
    2

    Climate warmed

    500,000 YA
    Sea level increased to foothills.
    Sand and sandstone formed Levin/ Shannon Plateau.
  • 3

    Temperatures and sea level starts to drop

    200,000 YA
    Horowhenua is a shallow sea with beaches just below the foothills. New beaches and coastal terraces (eg, Koputaroa) are formed as the sea level drops
  • 4

    Last ice age begins

    20,000 YA
    With the beginning of the last ice age, erosion makes Otaki gravel terraces and Waikanae
  • 5

    End of the last ice age

    10,000 - 9,000 YA
    As the last ice age ends, sea levels rise and flood Zealandia to form the current coastline of New Zealand
  • 6

    Taupo Eruption

    1800 YA
    The eruption of Taupo causes rapid land build up and the formation of the dune lakes
  • Development of New Zealand continues

    Land continues to build up along the coast of New Zealand, the beach moving westward. Manawatu river continues to be silted up and meanders more as water is removed from underwater reservoirs. Uplift due to subduction of the Tararuas continues.