On the eighth of the sunken continent, found traces of life
Ended a nine-week expedition of the drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution, during which scholars explored the seabed off the coast of New Zealand and Australia, where underwater is the eighth continent — Zealand.
The fossilized remains of land animals and other findings proved that the ancient land was not always buried beneath the waves. This is reported Live Science.
“Zealand, a sunken continent, he revealed his secrets that he kept for 60 million years,” — said the head of the expedition from the National science Foundation Jamie Allan.
In February 2017, scientists announced the existence of an eighth continent Zealand, lying in the depths of the ocean off the East coast of Australia. Scientists aboard the drilling ship JOIDES Resolution, have drilled the core samples of bottom sediments at six different sites. Cores located at a distance of 2.5 thousand meters below sea level, opened to scientists, 70 million years of history of the ancient continent. Experts have found fossils, proving that Zealand has not always been buried under the waves of the ocean.
“We have studied more than eight thousand specimens and identified several hundred fossil species. Spores and pollen of terrestrial plants suggests that the climate Zealand in the past have differed significantly”, — said one of the participants Gerald Dickens of rice University.
About 100 million years ago Australia, Antarctica and Zealand were megacontinent. Land animals could move freely between these continents. Then Zealand separated from Australia and Antarctica, down below sea level about 80 million years ago.