Hypothesis: New Zealand is a Volcanic Product of the Flood

Unlike the bigger parts of the Americas, probably no huge post-Flood landslides, so, no post-Flood dino fossils.

But as it was no land before the Flood, it would have no articulated skeleta from land animals before the Flood.

Now, what does Palaeontology look like on New Zealand?

Conway Formation

La especie tipo, Marichimaera waiparaensis, fue nombrada originalmente como una especie de Prognathodon, P. waiparaensis, en 1971, sobre la base de un cráneo, vértebras cervicales y costillas encontradas en los estratos de Maastrichtian en la región de Waipara de la Isla Sur.

South Island, cranium, neck vertebrates, ribs ... of a kind of mososaur which, judging from proportions would have been 11 metres.

Mososaurs are sea animals. Would have spent all time before the Flood, perhaps much of the Flood itself, in water.

Taniwhasaurus oweni:

The first fossils formally attributed to this taxon were described by the Scottish naturalist James Hector in 1874. The skeletal material of T. oweni consisted of a skull, vertebrae and paddles, divided into three distinct sections.

Alexandronectes zealandiensis.

The specimen was cataloged as M Zfr 73 and CM Zfr 91. It comprised two elements of cranium. Zfr 73 contained part of mandible with quadrate bone and squamosal bone, with preserved paroccipital process. Zfr 91 comprised part of cranium (big cranium, as Hiller and Mannering would point out later) comprising fragment of right pterygoid bone, basisphenoid bone, basioccipital bone, crushed rights squamosal bone and quadrate bone.[4] Initially these specimens were thought to originate from different individuals.

Mauisaurus haasti

Mauisaurus remains have all been found in New Zealand's South Island, in Canterbury. Mauisaurus haasti was described by Hector in 1874 based on eight specimens and diagnosed by its cervical vertebrae and a humerus with large tuberosities. However, of these eight specimens, two, consisting of ribs and paddle, were lost, while another, the cast of a jaw fragment (the original fossil of which was also lost) was found to be a mosasaur. The most substantial specimen, 8a (DM R1529), consisted of fragmentary pubes, a partial ilium and hindlimbs, originally misidentified as part of the pectoral girdle.

Australopristis wiffeni

Australopristis is an extinct genus of sclerorhynchoid fish from the late Cretaceous epoch.[1] Its name is derived from the Latin for "southern" and the Greek for "saw". It is known from a single species, A. wiffeni named for the late prominent fossil hunter Joan Wiffen. This species is currently known only from rostral teeth found at Mangahouanga stream and East Wing, Haumuri bluff, New Zealand. Its rostral teeth possess a smooth root which makes it unique among sclerorhynchoids. Rostral teeth appear to vary in morphology according to position and ontogenetic stage. Unlike the related Onchopristis and Atlanticopristis, it lives in a marine rather than fluvial environment and likely preferred cooler waters.

Foulden Maar

Sedimentary rocks in New Zealand can be dated using analysis based on existing data about the first and last occurrences of key taxa in fossil records. Fossil pollen from the Foulden Maar drill cores has been dated at 23 Ma with reference to fossil pollen found at other fossil sites in Southland and Otago.

Foulden Maar is one of New Zealand's pre-eminent fossil sites, and is unique in the Southern Hemisphere for the time period it covers. .... Fossilised freshwater fish are common. The earliest galaxiid fish fossil and the earliest known fossilised eel both come from Foulden Maar.[17] Numerous arthropod fossils have been found at the site, among them Araneae (spiders), Plecoptera (stoneflies), Odonata (dragonflies), Isoptera (termites), Hemiptera (true bugs), Diptera (true flies), Coleoptera (beetles), Trichoptera (caddis flies), and Hymenoptera (wasps, ants and bees).[7] The four arachnids found at Foulden Maar are the first arachnid fossils identified in New Zealand; previous spider specimens had been found in amber but were not identifiable.[18] The first fossil hymenopteran in New Zealand is an ant found at Foulden Maar.[19] Fossils of immature aquatic flies obtained from Foulden Maar are helping scientists to shed light on the ecological history of true flies in New Zealand.[20]

Tahora Formation

Let's ignore the fish-lizards, or sea reptiles, and get to actual non-aquatic kinds:

Azhdarchidae (pterosaurs) Distal left ulna, coracoid fragment
Ankylosauria An incomplete rib and two caudal veterbral centra
Ornithopoda Partial right ilium
Sauropoda A rib fragment
Theropoda Caudal vertebra, pedal phalanx

In other words, so disjointed, they could have come a long way. There are also loads of maritime creatures.

Huriwai Measures Formation

Plant fossils were then identified from the formation by Purser (1961),[3] and the first tetrapod fossil (specimen AU13802) was discovered in the formation in 1995. AU13802 was identified by Molnar, Wiffen & Hayes (1998) as a phalanx bone probably belonging to a theropod dinosaur,[5] making it the first dinosaur fossil from the Jurassic to be discovered in New Zealand.

OK, dito.

Katiki Formation

The one vertebrate type of creatures is Moso- and Elasmosaurs, so, aquatic. Belemnites and dinoflagellates are invertebrate aquatic.

Kokoamu Greensand

Vertebrates found in the formation include fish, penguins and cetaceans.

First Full Look at Prehistoric New Zealand Penguin
February 27, 2012 Tracey Peake
https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/02/tpkairuku/

Abstract: Three skeletons collected from the late Oligocene Kokoamu Greensand of New Zealand are among the most complete Paleogene penguins known. These specimens, described here as Kairuku waitaki, gen. et sp. nov., and Kairuku grebneffi, sp. nov., reveal new details of key elements of the stem penguin skeleton associated with underwater flight, including the sternum, flipper, and pygostyle.

Takatika Grit / Kupoupou

The holotype is NMNZ S.47312; an associated left tarsometatarsus, left radius, and caudal vertebra, and the referred material consists of:[1]

• NMNZ S.44729; a left coracoid.
• NMNZ S.47303; associated partial skeleton comprising a distal right carpometacarpus, left radius, proximal right radius, right proximal phalanx of the second digit, right phalanx of the third digit, an almost complete axis, four cervical vertebrae, a caudal vertebra, a left rib, and a partial worn ilium
• NMNZ S.47308; a right femur, a left humerus, a sternal section of a left coracoid, a left ulna.
• NMNZ S.47339; omal part scapula, distally eroded left humerus, right ulna, right radius, distal left femur, distal left tibiotarsus, two cervical vertebrae and five other vertebrae in differing degrees of preservation and exposure at the rock surface, and two partial ribs.

The skeleta seem pretty incomplete ...

Tupuangi Formation

Mainly flora, the fauna is mainly insects.

So, clear land vertebrates in well articulated skeleta? Well, a few penguins. If as much.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Pope St. Leo IV
17.VII.2026