This seminar reports on New Zealand's first and only Tertiary land vertebrate fauna. The St Bathans Fauna (Worthy et al.) is preserved in 16-19 Ma Manuherikia Group sediments outcropping near the town of St Bathans, Central Otago, South Island. The work, begun in a pilot project (2001-5), is providing the first fossil data on the origin and longevity of many unique & internationally significant vertebrate lineages including leiopelmatid frogs, tuatara (sphenodontids), kiwi, moa, burrowing bats and, perhaps most unexpectedly, a new group of primitive non-flying mammals.

 

The research is shedding first light on the original biodiversity of land vertebrates in prehuman New Zealand, including the origins, evolutionary and biogeographical relationships of fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals in both eastern Gondwana and the Australasian Region.

 

The St Bathans Fauna also includes the first fossil records for a number of iconic Australian "natives", such as the currawong, indicating that trans-Tasman dispersal of fauna has been more common than previously thought.