PermeateFree said:
Thousands of fossil specimens were gathered during the research that clearly indicated that Zealandia was not always an undersea land. It was generally suspected that the continent slipped under water about 80 million years ago when it broke away from Australia and Antarctica.
http://newatlas.com/zealandia-expedition-ocean-floor-study/51537/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=18bf18570a-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-18bf18570a-92533145
“Thousands of fossil specimens were gathered during the research that clearly indicated that Zealandia was not always an undersea land. It was generally suspected that the continent slipped under water about 80 million years ago when it broke away from Australia and Antarctica.”
“That is still probably accurate, but it is now clear that dramatic later events shaped the continent we explored on this voyage,”
Those “dramatic later events” have been revealed to be a stretch of significant volcanic activity between 40 and 50 million years ago. Resulting in the formation of what is known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” this major geological shift buckled the seabed of the sunken continent.
Other discoveries from the expedition reveal clues as to how certain species of flora and fauna have migrated across the globe.
“The discovery of microscopic shells of organisms that lived in warm shallow seas, and of spores and pollen from land plants, reveal that the geography and climate of Zealandia were dramatically different in the past.”
Nice work!
