Re: NEW ZEALAND'S WONDERFUL LITTLE WORLD

[pwillis@ozemail.com.au (Paul Willis)]

>But were there _ever_ mammals
>in NZ? No real reason why not. Terrestrial mammals may have gotten to NZ in the
>Cretaceous (before rifting from Australia approx. 80 mya), but got killed off
>by later extinctions.

One probllem here is that New Zealand was never attached to Australia. It
was attached to Antartica.

>By the Lower Cret, Australia had _Steropodon galmani_,

We also now have a second Cretaceous monotreme in _Kallikodon_.

>_Tingamarra_, a basal
>ungulate from the Eocene, is Australian.

Basal ungulate? I thought it was a condralyth.


Cheers, Paul


Dr Paul M.A. Willis
Consulting Vertebrate Palaeontologist
Quinkana Pty Ltd
pwillis@ozemail.com.au