A hurricane unearths 80-million-year-old fossils of huge sea creatures in New Zealand

Between February 12 and 16, 2023, Tropical Cyclone Gabriel devastated the North Island of New Zealand. This was the deadliest air disturbance in the country since 1968, killing eleven people. And forced tens of thousands of citizens to flee and hundreds on the roofs of their homes to evacuate their homes.

This environmental and human tragedy, though horrific, nonetheless led to serendipitous discoveries: in the Maungataniwha Forest, volunteers from Forest Life Force Recovery Fund Uncovered by the hurricane, fossils of what appeared to be gigantic marine reptiles 80 million years ago have been discovered.

“The process has revealed countless previously unknown fossils, connections to our ancient past that would otherwise have remained forever hidden.”They explained in a press release, posted to Facebook on June 15, 2013 and have been spotted before Live Science.

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Mangahouanga is an area rich in marine fossils

The Mangahouanga Valley in the north of Hawke’s Bay (east coast of the North Island of New Zealand) is famous for sedimentary rocks of Upper Cretaceous sandstones (100-66 million years ago). year). Thus a large number of fossils of marine reptiles and dinosaurs have been found there, the first of which was found in 1975 by the team of paleontologist Joanne Wiffen.

“If any place can be considered a center of New Zealand paleontology, it is probably the Maungataniwha Forest, and in particular the Mangahouanga Stream,”Experts note Forest Life Force Recovery Fund in their Facebook posts.

When Tropical Cyclone Gabriel devastated the Gulf in February, rivers became the forests of the region’s mountainous hinterland “raging torrents”. there Pressure of millions of cubic meters of rainwater Thus the currents family was eroded I knocked down boulders the size of shopping carts.According to one Publishing From the GNS Science Research Institute.

The course of the Mangawanga River, covered since the first discoveries in 1975, has also been severely disturbed. “It is as if a giant had descended from the bottom of the stream, kicking rocks and boulders as if they were pebbles and turning over everything in its path.”explains Pete Shaw, a fossil hunter and director of forests for the organization, who went there in March to assess damage from the climate event.

She was not surprised when, during one outing, she found a large number of fossils hidden in the stream for millions of years. “Judging from what we found on one morning, Hurricane Gabriel will contribute greatly to our collective knowledge of the creatures that inhabited this place in the depths of prehistoric times.”develops a specialist.

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Potential mega-marine reptiles of the Cretaceous period

The precious finds have now been handed over to GNS Science experts, at their laboratory in the capital, Wellington, for a closer look at their nature.

Marianna Terezov, Head National Paleontology Collection from New Zealand, so far I have tentatively identified two fossilized vertebrae as those of Elasmosaurus (Elasmosaurus), a huge long-necked marine reptile that can reach 14 meters in length.

Still others could, it seems, come from a larger oceanic predator, Mosasaur (mosasaurs). Its bones even indicate that the specimen found could be the largest ever identified by the institute’s paleontologists.

Mosasaur remains have already been uncovered in the country. The first finds were made in the localities of Waipara, Shag Point and Haumuri Bluff, in the South Island. But in the same stream of Mangahouanga the reptile’s teeth were exposed by Joan Wiffen, and then part of the jaw and its well-preserved giant teeth by Pete Shaw in 2015. Exceptional finds, which are still extremely rare.

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The study found that long-necked dinosaurs crossed from South America to Australia via Antarctica