Tree DNA helps support traditional view that some New Zealand plants were saved from catastrophic flood (1/15/2008)

Kauri Tree DNA used to determine how and when plants and animals may have migrated after the breakup of Gondwana

Advanced DNA dating techniques used to analyse New Zealand kauri trees have led scientists to believe that New Zealand was never completely submerged.

The finding supports the traditional view that some New Zealand plants and animals were transported on a Moa's Ark, when New Zealand separated from the southern supercontinent Gondwana and that descendants of these species still exist today.

Professor Peter Lockhart of the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution says that the New Zealand and Australian species separated before the so-called Oligocene drowning period when the New Zealand landmasses were greatly reduced in size, some 26-38 million years ago.

"The divergence time of Australian and New Zealand kauri is ancient, the simplest explanation for the molecular clock findings is that New Zealand has existed ever since it rafted away from Gondwana, more than 80 million years ago. If this is so, New Zealand kauri may well have a whakapapa that traces back to 95-million-year-old South Island fossils." Professor Lockhart says.

While some scientists have claimed that New Zealand was submerged during the Oligocene drowning period, the team from the Allan Wilson Centre say that the molecular clock findings from kauri are very difficult to reconcile under this hypothesis.

"The results highlight the need for further studies on the origins of New Zealand's flora and fauna," Professor Lockhart says.

The research was part of a PhD dissertation by Michael Knapp in the Institute of Molecular BioSciences at Massey University, and was published recently in the journal Systematic Biology. The research examined kauri samples from Northland and the Coromandel.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Massey University,

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