Intense Cyclone Gabrielle That Battered New Zealand Leads to Discovery of Giant Marine Fossils From 80 Million Years Ago

The deadly cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand unearthed the fossils of giant marine reptiles from 80 million years ago.

Giant Marine Fossils

According to Live Science, these fossils were found by volunteers and staff from the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust. They were specifically spotted at the Maungataniwha Native Forest after Cyclone Gabrielle hit the North Island of New Zealand in February. These remains were washed into the streams by the heavy rains. Due to this, they ended up getting preserved as marine fossils along the coast. They then ended up in the boulders of the Mangahouanga Stream.

Paleontologists think that the two newly found fossil vertebrae are part of the Elasmosaurus marine reptile, which is a long-necked and giant creature that could span roughly 45 feet in length. Stuff.co.nz adds that this creature is not exactly a dinosaur but a marine counterpart of such a creature that lived during this time.

They also found another vertebral fossil that may have come from a mosasaur. This creature is a huge marine reptile that was a top predator in the ocean during the time of the dinosaurs. Fossils of mosasaurs have been spotted across New Zealand in the past.

Stuff.co.nz adds that fossilized teeth of mosasaurs were previously spotted by Joan Wiffen and team at the Mangahouanga Stream. Joan Wiffen and her team were the first to find dinosaur fossils in the country across the stream back in 1975.

Despite these discoveries, fossils of mosasaurs are actually not common in the country. Other fossils were spotted in southern Marlborough's Haumuri Bluff and Otago's Waipara, Shag Point.

Cyclone Gabrielle

Cyclone Gabrielle hit the North Island of New Zealand from February 12 to 16. The severe tropical cyclone left the area devastated.

Live Science adds that it was the deadliest cyclone to hit the country since 1968. Because of the cyclone, 11 people ended up dying.

Because of it, the nation was placed under a national state of emergency. According to the NASA Earth Observatory, this is the third time the country has been put under such a declaration. Because of the storm, hundreds of thousands of individuals were left with power outages, flight cancellations, and damages to infrastructure, homes, and roads.

A statement from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences explains that, in the specific mountainous area where the fossils were found, rivers and streams turned into raging torrents that had millions of cubic feet of rainwater that elevated boulders as big as shopping trolleys.

Maungataniwha Native Forests hosts several fossils that date as far back as the Cretaceous period. Pete Shaw, the forest manager at Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust, explains that, considering what they spotted one morning, they think that the cyclone will heavily contribute to collective understanding of the creatures that dwelled in this region during prehistoric times.

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