NZ history changes

16 million year old fossils of a mouse-sized land animal have been found in New Zealand, unlike any other mammal. This is a big find, as it suggests that NZ wasn't completely submerged all those millions of years ago, and it has been thought for a long time that the birds of New Zealand did so well because there was no competition from land mammals - this is the first evidence of a land mammal ever being found in NZ, pre-humans of course.
This finding suggests that the rule of birds in NZ was a more recent thing, and with a new grant from the Australian Research council of $500,000 hopefully they will find and date more fossils so we can get a good idea of just how recent it was.

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