Kōrero: Fossils

During the Cenozoic, fish, marine mammals and birds flourished in New Zealand. Clockwise from top left: a flounder; a seal vertebra, Arctocephalus forsteri (1 million years ago [Ma]); the tibia of the moa species Anomalopteryx didiformis, from Mana Island (1 Ma); penguin leg bones (right femur), Palaeeudyptes, from Kāwhia Harbour (30 Ma); and whale teeth, Kekenodon onomata, from the Waitaki Valley (26 Ma).

These fossils are part of the GNS Science National Paleontological Collection.