The newly described fossil goose Meterchen luti lived alongside crocodilians and turtles on the shores of the ancient Lake Manuherikia.
- Curator of Vertebrates, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
New Zealand’s ancient bowerbird was smaller and more slender than the species living in Australia and New Guinea today.
Great penguins once lived in much warmer waters, but then retreated to the Southern Ocean. In a warming world, they might be able to shift their range again.
Many birds on Rēkohu Chatham Islands show how ‘island syndrome’ influences evolution – they are distinct but remain closely related to species on the mainland.
A recent announcement that kiwi and moa are Australian immigrants is not borne out by available evidence. Working out when birds arrived in New Zealand requires both fossil evidence and genetics.
Fossilised bones discovered in New Zealand reveal an extinct penguin which may have been the largest to ever live, around the same height as an average man.
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