A treasure trove of fossils found in an ancient cave has revealed a missing chapter in the history of New Zealand’s wildlife.
Described in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, the finds reveal a turbulent past and hint that the ancestor of a famously ground-dwelling parrot may in fact, have flown.
New Zealand is famed for its iconic native wildlife, which is dominated by birds, reptiles and insects. Thanks to the fossil record, researchers know a lot about its really ancient past (circa 18 million years ago) and its more recent past (around 1000 years ago), but the bit in the middle is less well understood.
The new fossils help to bridge that gap. They were found in the Moa Eggshell Cave, on the country’s North Island. Dated at around 1 to 1.5 million years old, they include 12 species of extinct bird and four species of extinct frog.
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“This is a newly recognised avifauna for New Zealand,” says Trevor Worthy from 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.”
The findings suggest that up to half of species went extinct during the million years before humans arrived in New Zealand. These extinctions were caused by cataclysmic volcanic eruptions and rapid changes in climate. Shifting forest and shrubland habitats forced a reset of bird populations. As old species died out, new ones evolved.
One of the most significant finds is a new species of parrot, Strigops insulaborealis, which is an ancient relative of the kākāpō. The kākāpō is a critically endangered species of flightless parrot, with strong, muscular legs that help it to climb trees. Its ancient ancestor, in contrast, had weaker legs, implying it was a less adept climber. More research is needed to confirm whether these birds could fly.
The cave also yielded an extinct ancestor of the modern takahē, which allows researchers to track the evolution of this endangered, flightless bird, and an extinct species of pigeon closely related to Australian bronzewing pigeons.
Collectively, the collection of fossils provides a critical, missing baseline for New Zealand’s natural history. “This wasn’t a missing chapter in New Zealand’s ancient history, it was a missing volume,” says Paul Scofield, Senior Curator of Natural History at Canterbury Museum.
Top image: South entrance to Moa Eggshell Cave in New Zealand. Credit: Trevor Worthy
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