Faunal Affinities

It is clear from the fossil record that the Scleractinian coral fauna of New Zealand today is of fairly recent origin and results from invasion from two areas. Faunal continuity through the Tertiary was broken by late Tertiary cooling, resulting in the extinction of all but a very few of the pre-Pliocene species. Those elements of the modern fauna which have Plio-Pleistocene antecedents: i.e., Flabellum rubrum, Caryophyllia profunda, as well as several stylasterid and alcyonarian forms, are presumed to represent an immigrant fauna derived from the Southern Ocean. Other elements of the fauna such as Culicia rubeola, Paracyathus conceptus, Goniocorella dumosa, and Dendrophyllia japonica are more probably representatives of a very recent invasion from the Indo-Pacific. Relatively few modern species including Oculina virgosa, Conocyathus zelandiae and Balanophyllia alta, are also recorded in middle Tertiary rocks

Obviously New Zealand has not been isolated sufficiently long under a given climatic regime to develop its own distinctive coral fauna. This presents a contrast with South Australia, which has a very characteristic fauna composed of a high percentage of endemic genera and species. The Malayasian deeper water coral fauna is perhaps the most diversified yet described (Vaughan and Wells, 1944, p. 88) and includes a number of characteristic genera, none of which is known at the present time from New Zealand waters. Despite the statement by Vaughan and Wells page 18 (1944, p. 88) that the largest proportion of the New Zealand fauna is autochthonous, it is largely composed of more widespread forms.

It would be premature to attempt to discern any provincial divisions among the shallower water coral fauna on data now available. The concentrations of species in the Bay of Plenty-Hauraki Gulf region is presumed to reflect the great proportion of sampling in that area. Records for the Tasman Sea are almost non-existent with the exception of "Cable faunas" and the fiord faunas have been collected only by the New Golden Hind Expedition. Similarly, with the exception of the area of the Chatham Rise, the fauna of the eastern coast of the South Island is barely recorded.