List of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles of New Zealand

Although the evidence is rare, fossils reveal that there were Mesozoic reptiles, including dinosaurs in New Zealand. Possibly because it lacks the right conditions for fossilization, only fragmentary dinosaur remains have been found there. These fossils are often only a single bone or a piece of a bone, and thus the dinosaurs' species cannot be identified. By comparing the fossils with other, more complete remains from other areas it can be inferenced which family or order a given fossil belonged to. Marine fossils are more common than fossils of land animals in New Zealand because dead animals and plants are easily preserved in sand and mud. Therefore, some fossils of marine reptiles are complete enough to be assigned to a specific genus or species.

Species list

So far, there have been fossils found in New Zealand that have been identified as coming from:

Non-avian dinosaurs

Dinosaurs that lived in the Ross Dependency, a part of Antarctica within the Realm of New Zealand, include the tetanuran Cryolophosaurus. The Ross Dependency, unlike the Chatham Islands, is not actually part of New Zealand, and this is why it is excluded from the list above until sufficient evidence shows that it entered what was the sector of Gondwana that is now New Zealand. Newer fossils from a Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary fossil formation known as the Takataka Grit in the Chatham Islands include six or seven (possibly more) bones from dinosaurs, as well as numerous bones from early birds, but more information is needed about these to add them to the list.

Other Mesozoic reptiles

Fossils of other reptiles from the Mesozoic Era have also been found in New Zealand. These creatures include:

See also

• Reptiles of New Zealand
• Geology of New Zealand
• New Zealand geologic time scale

References