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Story: Fossils

Cenozoic vertebrates

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Cenozoic vertebrates

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.

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GNS Science

by Alastair McLean

Permission of GNS Science must be obtained before any use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Hamish Campbell, Fossils – Age of mammals – Cenozoic, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/9800/cenozoic-vertebrates (accessed 5 June 2026).

Story by Hamish Campbell, published 2 March 2009.