NZ cave fossils reveal a forgotten million-year avifauna

An excavation at Moa Eggshell Cave near Waitomo, New Zealand, yielded 12 bird species and 4 frog species preserved between two volcanic ash layers dated about 1.55 million and 1.0 million years ago, providing a clean Early Pleistocene window. The find fills roughly a 15-million-year gap in New Zealand’s fossil record between the St Bathans fauna and the pre-human era, revealing extinct relatives such as Strigops insulaborealis (a kakapo relative), an extinct takahē ancestor, and a pigeon related to bronzewings. Evidence from bone and wear marks suggests diverse lifestyles, while climate shifts and volcanic eruptions repeatedly reshaped habitats—showing natural upheaval drove diversification and extinctions long before humans arrived.