nPostednon September 24, 2015
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nEvennthough New Caledonia is a bunch of islands in the South Pacific Oceann– even though the islands are in the Micronesian region and lessnthan a thousand miles from Australia – but more than TEN THOUSANDnmiles from France! – New Caledonia is part of France!
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nIt’snwhat’s called a “special collectivity” of France.
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nNewnCaledonia became an overseas territory of France on this date inn1853; that’s why today is celebrated as a national holiday by thisnnot-actually-an-independent-nation!
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Allnthe islands added together make up a bit less land mass than NewnJersey. But almost all of the land mass is made up by just onenisland, called Grande Terre (Big Land). I thought it was interestingnto read that locals call Grande Terre Le
Allnthe islands added together make up a bit less land mass than NewnJersey. But almost all of the land mass is made up by just onenisland, called Grande Terre (Big Land). I thought it was interestingnto read that locals call Grande Terre Le n
nCaillou, or “thenpebble.”
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nEvennthough almost the whole of New Caledonia is that one island, therenare loads of different islands in the country, divided into fournarchipelagos (which is a fancy name for a group of islands). Checknout the list of island and islet names and cities!
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nOnenof the most important things about New Caledonia is that it is anfragment of the ancient Gondwana super-continent that probably brokenoff from Australia about 66 million years ago. Because the nativenplants and animals were isolated from the rest of the plant andnanimal world so long ago, it has many unique species. Not just uniquenspecies, but also unique genera – and even unique families!
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| A fungus called garnierii |
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| I can’t help thinking that the birds and sea creatures were less isolated than were the land creatures! |
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| A giant gecko |
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| I like these pinwheel-shaped flowers! |
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| A spider |
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nThenflora and fauna are considered to have preserved many lineages fromnthe Mesozoic era that are simply no longer found elsewhere! I sawnthat New Caledonia is considered a sort of “refugium” orn“biological ark” – a place where an isolated or “relict”npopulation of plants or animals takes refuge while other populationsnface changing conditions and rapid evolutionary change.
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| Zealandia is roughly triangular in shape. |
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nNewnCaledonia is also part of Zealandia, which is a mostly-underwatern“continent.” As you can perhaps guess, New Zealand is also a partnof this 93%-submerged continent. Some scientists speculate that ALLnof the continent – New Zealand and New Caledonia included – wasnunderwater about 23 million years ago, but there was also a timen(some scientists assert) when you could walk from New Caledonia tonNew Zealand.
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nTherenseems to be a problem with combining the theory of New Caledonia as anbiological ark with the theory that the whole of Zealandia wasncompletely submerged. I guess this conflict means that we need morenevidence from geology and biology to settle the question! (Hooray fornopen-ended questions that upcoming scientists can study!)
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| The Isle of Pines is considered one of the most beautiful islands in New Caledonia. |
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nAlsonon this date:
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NationalnDay in Guinea-Bissau
NationalnDay in Guinea-Bissaun
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nSchwenkfeldernThanksgiving
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nChiefnJustice John Marshall’s birthday
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nAnniversarynof the establishment of the Supreme Court of the United States
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nNationalnPunctuation Day
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nSeptembern holidays
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nSeptembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in September
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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