New Zealands Changing Landscape

Tectonic Plates

The movement of Tectonic plates below continue to influence the landscape of New Zealand

Tectonic Plates

Movement of tectonic plates which resulted in the formation of the Southern Alps.

Life in Aotearoa New Zealand

Evolution in New Zealand.

A brief history of evolution in New Zealand which resulted from the changing landscapes and the variety of new habitats available for species to occupy.

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/3042-life-in-aotearoa-new-zealand

Speciation of Moa

As landscapes changed new habitats were available for Moa to expand into and speciation occurred

Adaptive Radiation Of Wrens in NZ

Changing coastlines results in changing  niche availability for species

Paleographic maps of changes in shorelines in the New Zealand region over the last 45 million years, showing extensive loss of land area and niches up to the 'Oligocene bottleneck' 35-25 million years ago, followed by area expansion and niche diversification. Ma = millions of years before present. (after Couper et al., in prep.) 

https://nzscienceteacher.co.nz/index.php/curriculum-literacy/the-living-world/a-new-zealand-evolutionary-story-the-wrens/#.YWjxpZpBxPY

Further examples of evolution of New Zealand Species:

https://sci.waikato.ac.nz/evolution/NZevidence.shtml