NZ DINO FAUNA

["Darren Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

John Schneiderman wrote:

> > Do the insular fauna of Late Cretaceous New Zealand, match the
> > Cretaceous fauna, especially like that found in Cape Otway, Australia?

Tim replies:
 
> Simple answer: No.  But this is largely because the dinofaunas of both 
> Australia and New Zealand are too poorly known to make any meaningful
> comparisons.  Most of Australia's dinosaurs are of mid-Cretaceous age 
> (Aptian/Albian/Cenomanian), and I'm not sure if NZ has any dino 
> material that is contemporary.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but _all_ NZ dinosaurs (and pterosaurs.. and
mosasaurs, and abundant plesiosaurs and pliosaurs) are from very Late
Cret deposits (as John said): it has not yet been determined if the
deposits are Campanian or Maastrichtian, they are usually dated as
'Campanian-Maastrichtian'.
 
> > What of Antartica's Cretaceous fauna?
> 
> I know of a nodosaur from Ross Island and a medium-sized ornithopod 
> (?hypsilophodontid) from Vega Island.  The former is inderminate, the 
> latter is awaiting a formal description.

I thought the ornithopod was a dryosaur.
 
"Man is nature's sole mistake" 
W.S. Gilbert

DARREN NAISH