Scientists open a million-year-old time capsule hidden beneath New Zealand
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A remarkable fossil discovery inside a cave near Waitomo on New Zealand's North Island is giving scientists an unprecedented look at a long vanished ecosystem. Researchers from Australia and New Zealand have uncovered the remains of ancient birds and frogs that lived around 1 million years ago, including a previously unknown relative of the iconic kākāpō.
What Happened
The find marks the first time scientists have recovered a large collection of terrestrial vertebrate fossils from this period in New Zealand's history. Preserved within the cave were fossils belonging to 12 bird species and four frog species, offering a rare snapshot of a world that existed hundreds of thousands of years before humans reached the islands. The research, published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, suggests that New Zealand's wildlife was already undergoing dramatic changes long before human settlement.
Powerful volcanic eruptions and rapid climate shifts repeatedly reshaped habitats, driving extinctions and opening opportunities for new species to evolve. Lead author Associate Professor Trevor Worthy of Flinders University says the fossils reveal a bird community unlike anything seen in New Zealand today. "This is a newly recognized avifauna for New Zealand, one that was replaced by the one humans encountered a million years later," says Associate Professor Worthy, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University. "This remarkable find suggests our ancient forests were once home to a diverse group of birds that did not survive the next million years." In biology, the term "avifauna" refers to the collection of bird species living in a particular place and time.
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