Posted
on September 24, 2015
Even
though New Caledonia is a bunch of islands in the South Pacific Ocean
– even though the islands are in the Micronesian region and less
than a thousand miles from Australia – but more than TEN THOUSAND
miles from France! – New Caledonia is part of France!
It's
what's called a “special collectivity” of France.
New
Caledonia became an overseas territory of France on this date in
1853; that's why today is celebrated as a national holiday by this
not-actually-an-independent-nation!
All
the islands added together make up a bit less land mass than New
Jersey. But almost all of the land mass is made up by just one
island, called Grande Terre (Big Land). I thought it was interesting
to read that locals call Grande Terre Le
Caillou, or “the
pebble.”
Even
though almost the whole of New Caledonia is that one island, there
are loads of different islands in the country, divided into four
archipelagos (which is a fancy name for a group of islands). Check
out the list of island and islet names and cities!
One
of the most important things about New Caledonia is that it is a
fragment of the ancient Gondwana super-continent that probably broke
off from Australia about 66 million years ago. Because the native
plants and animals were isolated from the rest of the plant and
animal world so long ago, it has many unique species. Not just unique
species, but also unique genera – and even unique families!
 |
| A fungus called garnierii |
 |
| I can't help thinking that the birds and sea creatures were less isolated than were the land creatures! |
 |
| A giant gecko |
 |
| I like these pinwheel-shaped flowers! |
 |
| A spider |
The
flora and fauna are considered to have preserved many lineages from
the Mesozoic era that are simply no longer found elsewhere! I saw
that New Caledonia is considered a sort of “refugium” or
“biological ark” – a place where an isolated or “relict”
population of plants or animals takes refuge while other populations
face changing conditions and rapid evolutionary change.
 |
| Zealandia is roughly triangular in shape. |
New
Caledonia is also part of Zealandia, which is a mostly-underwater
“continent.” As you can perhaps guess, New Zealand is also a part
of this 93%-submerged continent. Some scientists speculate that ALL
of the continent – New Zealand and New Caledonia included – was
underwater about 23 million years ago, but there was also a time
(some scientists assert) when you could walk from New Caledonia to
New Zealand.
There
seems to be a problem with combining the theory of New Caledonia as a
biological ark with the theory that the whole of Zealandia was
completely submerged. I guess this conflict means that we need more
evidence from geology and biology to settle the question! (Hooray for
open-ended questions that upcoming scientists can study!)
 |
| The Isle of Pines is considered one of the most beautiful islands in New Caledonia. |
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
No comments:
Post a Comment