New Zealand’s true ancient species are animals like kakapo, small wrens, bats, and freshwater limpets, not like kiwi birds, moa and takahe which were recent “Aussie immigrants,” according to a study released on Tuesday.
An international team of palaeontologists reached this conclusion after two decades of groundbreaking research at the St Bathans fossil site in the New Zealand South Island’s Central Otago, which revealed thousands of fossil bones, Xinhua news agency reported.
The study, published in the journal Geobios, said the large site, which was once at the bottom of a large prehistoric lake, offers the only significant insight into New Zealand’s non-marine wildlife from 20 million years ago.
“Many of the species that we thought of as iconic New Zealand natives – a classic example would be the takahe – we now know are relatively recent blow-ins from Australia, arriving only a few million years ago,” said Canterbury Museum …