Notes
New Zealand’s isolation began over 80 million years ago, when powered by mighty geological forces, the land mass rifted away from ancient Gondwana and drifted into the Pacific with its precious cargo of wildlife. The natural history of the shaky isles and their surrounding seas, the dramatic geology and unique plants and animals, is the subject of New Zealand through time. From those dramatic origins right up to recent extinctions of native birds and the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, artist Ronald Cometti portrays the past in 16 chapters.Contents
Contents : Measuring the earth’s age -- The Long Isolation begins : 83 million years ago -- Beneath Cretaceous seas : 83-65 million years ago -- Cretaceous coasts : 83-65 million years ago -- When the world nearly ended : 65 million years ago -- Paleogene seas and seashores : 65-24 million years ago -- Neogene reptiles, then and now : 20 million years ago to today -- New Zealand’s Moa : 83 million to 300 years ago -- The rise of the Southern Alps : 5 million years ago -- The ice ages : 1.8 million to 850,000 years ago -- Taupo erupts : 1,800 years ago -- Auckland’s volcanoes : 150,000 to 600 years ago -- Lost swamp forests and wetland birds : 750 years ago to today -- Mount Tarawera erupts : 10 June 1886 -- Recently lost birds and rarities : 1840 to today -- The Hawke’s Bay earthquake : 3 February 1931 -- Glossary -- references -- index.
