AI generated image of the NZ cave
P Scofield, Canterbury Museum.
About a million years before creationism’s putative designer supposedly fashioned a small flat world beneath a solid dome — the imagined cosmos of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Middle East who authored the Bible’s creation myths — ancient frogs and birds, the ancestors of today’s New Zealand species, lived and died and became fossilised deep in a cave near Waitomo on Aotearoa’s North Island.
Of course, confined as they were to within a few days’ walk of the Canaanite hills, the authors of those myths could have had no inkling of people and places in far-flung regions of a spherical planet. Their tales were based entirely on what they imagined to be the whole universe, and contain nothing that existed beyond their narrow horizons.
How these New Zealand fossils were unearthed, and what they can tell us about Aotearoa’s deep past, is the subject of a paper just published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, by a research group led by Associate Professor Trevor Worthy of the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University.
It is, of course, a story vastly different from Biblical mythology — the evidence for which stubbornly refuses to manifest itself, and instead consistently refutes it, revealing it to be the product of parochial ignorance and an attempt to force-fit what little was known into prevailing cultural assumptions: what Christopher Hitchens aptly called “the fearful infancy of our species”.
The findings show that around 33–50% of species went extinct about one million years before humans first arrived on Aotearoa (New Zealand). The cause appears to have been a combination of rapid climate change and catastrophic volcanic activity. The discovery helps fill a fifteen-million-year gap in our knowledge of Aotearoa’s history.
Excavations at St Bathans in Central Otago have allowed palaeontologists and geologists to reconstruct the period between 20 and 16 million years ago, but until now there has been very little information about the long stretch between then and one million years ago.
Among the discoveries was a new species of parrot, Strigops insulaborealis, an ancient relative of the flightless kākāpō, but one that could probably fly; an extinct ancestor of the modern takahē; and an extinct species of pigeon closely related to Australian bronzewing pigeons.
To forestall the traditional creationist attempt to discredit both the discovery and the scientists who made it — by claiming the dating methods are flawed or even fraudulent — the fossils can be dated accurately because they lie between two layers of volcanic ash: one deposited around 1.55 million years ago, and another about one million years ago. Volcanic ash can be dated with a high degree of confidence using Uranium–Lead (U–Pb) dating of zircon crystals.
Background^ New Zealand’s ‘Lost World’ Fossil Record. New Zealand is often described as a biological “time capsule”, home to animals found nowhere else on Earth — from the kākāpō and takahē to tuatara and wētā. But what many people don’t realise is that today’s fauna is only the surviving remnant of a much richer prehistoric ecosystem: a lost world revealed through fossils.The work of Professor Worthy’s group is also explained in a Flinders University news blog.
Because Aotearoa separated from Gondwana around 80 million years ago, its plants and animals evolved in long isolation, largely free from land mammals. Instead, birds, reptiles, frogs, and insects diversified into ecological roles that elsewhere were filled by mammals. The result was an ecosystem unlike any other — and one that persisted for tens of millions of years.
The St Bathans ‘Miocene World’
One of the most important windows into this lost world comes from the famous St Bathans fossil site in Central Otago. Dating to around 20–16 million years ago, these deposits reveal that New Zealand once supported:
- crocodile-like reptiles
- giant bats
- diverse waterfowl
- early relatives of parrots
- many birds now completely extinct
St Bathans shows that New Zealand’s fauna was once far more varied than the sparse modern remnants suggest.
The Great Fossil Gap
After St Bathans, however, the fossil record becomes frustratingly sparse. For decades, palaeontologists had little evidence covering the next 15 million years — a huge missing chapter in the story of New Zealand life.
This is why discoveries such as the Waitomo cave fossils are so important: they help bridge the gap between the Miocene ecosystems of St Bathans and the much more recent world encountered by the first humans.
A Million-Year-Old Ecosystem
The fossils described by Worthy and colleagues come from around 1.55–1 million years ago, long before any human presence. They show that even before people arrived, New Zealand’s fauna was already undergoing major upheaval.
The evidence suggests that around a third to a half of species disappeared due to natural causes, including:
- rapid climatic shifts
- major volcanic activity
- ecological instability in isolated island systems
This is a reminder that extinction is not a uniquely human phenomenon — though humans later accelerated it catastrophically.
Why This Matters
New Zealand’s fossil record is devastating for creationist mythology. It reveals:
- deep evolutionary time measured in millions of years
- extinct ecosystems with no place in Biblical history
- species succession, adaptation, and loss long before humans
- a world shaped by geology, climate, and natural selection, not sudden fabrication
Aotearoa’s “lost world” is not a footnote in natural history — it is a vast evolutionary narrative written into stone, utterly indifferent to Bronze Age cosmology.
Glossary: Key Terms in New Zealand’s ‘Lost World’ Fossil Story
Aotearoa The Māori name for New Zealand, meaning “Land of the Long White Cloud”. Often used in scientific and cultural contexts to emphasise the country’s indigenous identity.
Gondwana A vast southern supercontinent that once included what are now New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica, South America, Africa, and India. New Zealand’s long isolation began after it broke away from Gondwana tens of millions of years ago.
Miocene Epoch (23–5 million years ago) A geological period when Earth was warmer than today and many modern groups of animals and plants were diversifying. New Zealand’s St Bathans fossil deposits come from the early Miocene, around 20–16 million years ago.
St Bathans Fossil Site One of New Zealand’s most important fossil localities, in Central Otago. It preserves a rich record of birds, reptiles, bats, and other life from the Miocene — revealing a much more diverse prehistoric fauna than survives today.
Waitomo Caves A limestone cave system on New Zealand’s North Island, famous today for glowworms, but also important for preserving ancient fossil deposits, including birds and frogs dating back more than a million years.
Volcanic Ash Layers (Tephra) Fine material ejected during volcanic eruptions, which can settle over wide areas and form distinct geological layers. Because ash is deposited rapidly, it provides excellent time markers in the fossil record.
Zircon Crystals Tiny, extremely durable mineral grains found in volcanic rocks and ash. Zircons incorporate uranium atoms when they form but exclude lead, making them ideal natural clocks for radiometric dating.
Uranium–Lead (U–Pb) Dating One of the most reliable radiometric dating methods. By measuring the decay of uranium into lead within zircon crystals, scientists can determine the age of volcanic layers with great precision — often to within tens of thousands of years.
Extinction Event A period when many species disappear over a relatively short geological interval. The Waitomo fossils suggest that major extinctions occurred in New Zealand long before humans arrived, driven by climate and volcanism.
Evolutionary Isolation The process by which species evolve independently after long separation from other landmasses. New Zealand’s isolation led to birds filling ecological roles that mammals occupy elsewhere.
The Fossil Record The preserved remains of ancient organisms, forming a chronological archive of life through deep time. New Zealand’s “lost world” fossils document ecosystems entirely absent from Biblical mythology.
1m-year-old ‘lost world’ discovered
Australian and New Zealand scientists have unearthed the remains of ancient wildlife in a cave near Waitomo on Aotearoa’s North Island, the first time a large number of million-year-old fossils have been found – including an ancestor of the large flightless Kākāpō parrot.
The discovery of fossils from 12 ancient bird species and four frog species has opened a rare window into how New Zealand looked about 1 million years ago.
It indicates that New Zealand’s ancient wildlife was significantly impacted by catastrophic climate changes and volcanic eruptions. This resulted in frequent extinctions and species replacements well before human arrival, according to new research published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
Lead author, Flinders University Associate Professor Trevor Worthy, says the study breaks new ground.
This is a newly recognised avifauna for New Zealand, one that was replaced by the one humans encountered a million years later. This remarkable find suggests our ancient forests were once home to a diverse group of birds that did not survive the next million years.
Associate Professor Trevor Worthy, lead author
College of Science and Engineering
Flinders University
Adelaide, SA, Australia.
The fossils were analysed by a team of palaeontologists from Flinders University and Canterbury Museum, along with volcanologists Joel Baker from the University of Auckland and Simon Barker of Victoria University of Wellington.
The findings suggest that about 33-50% of species went extinct during the million years before humans arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand.
These extinctions were driven by relatively rapid climate shifts and cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, says co-author and Canterbury Museum Senior Curator of Natural History Dr Paul Scofield.
From our excavations at St Bathans in Central Otago over many years, we have a snapshot of life in Aotearoa between 20 and 16 million years ago. These new findings cast light on the 15 million year period from then to 1 million years ago, which is largely absent from New Zealand’s fossil record. This wasn’t a missing chapter in New Zealand’s ancient history, it was a missing volume.
Adjunct Professor Dr R. Paul Scofield, co-author
Department of Natural History
Canterbury Museum
Christchurch New Zealand.
One of the most significant finds is a new species of parrot, Strigops insulaborealis, an ancient relative of the Kākāpō. While the modern Kākāpō is famous for being a heavy, flightless parrot, this newly described ancestor may have been able to fly.
Hunting for fossils at St BathansPhoto supplied.
Analysis of the fossil suggests it had weaker legs than its modern descendant, implying it was a less adept climber. More research is required to confirm whether the ancestor could fly.
The cave also yielded an extinct ancestor of the modern Takahē, which allows researchers to track the evolution of this iconic New Zealand bird, and an extinct species of pigeon closely related to Australian bronzewing pigeons.
The shifting forest and shrubland habitats forced a reset of the bird populations. We believe this was a major driver for the evolutionary diversification of birds and other fauna in the North Island.
Adjunct Professor Dr R. Paul Scofield.
The fossils could be accurately dated as they were between two layers of volcanic ash preserved in the cave. One layer was from an eruption 1.55 million years ago, while the other was from a massive eruption 1 million years ago.
The more recent eruption would have blanketed much of the North Island in metres of ash. Most of it would have been washed away, but some would have been preserved in caves. The older layer found at this fossil site proves it is the oldest known cave in the North Island.
[The fossils] provide a critical, missing baseline for New Zealand’s natural history. For decades, the extinction of New Zealand’s birds was viewed primarily through the lens of human arrival 750 years ago. This study proves that natural forces like super-volcanoes and dramatic climate shifts were already sculpting the unique identity of our wildlife over a million years ago.
Associate Professor Trevor Worthy.
Publication:
As always, what makes discoveries like this so uncomfortable for creationists is not merely that they add another fossil species to a museum catalogue, but that they illuminate an entire vanished world which existed quite independently of human beings, Biblical authors, or Bronze Age cosmology. These frogs and birds lived, died, and were entombed in stone a million years before the first Polynesian canoes ever reached Aotearoa, and unimaginably longer before anyone in the Levant began imagining a small flat Earth beneath a heavenly dome.
Nor is there any escape into the usual evasions. The fossils are not “misdated”, nor are the geological methods “assumptions”. The remains lie neatly between two volcanic ash layers which can be dated with high precision using uranium–lead clocks in zircon crystals — a technique grounded in nuclear physics, not wishful thinking. Creationists may dislike the answers, but the rocks are not obliged to respect their theology.
What emerges instead is the real history of life: ecosystems evolving, diversifying, and sometimes collapsing under the pressure of climate shifts and volcanic catastrophe, long before humans ever entered the picture. Extinction is not some modern anomaly, nor a footnote after Eden, but an intrinsic part of Earth’s deep-time biological story — a story written across millions of years, not a few thousand.
New Zealand’s “lost world” is therefore yet another reminder that the universe is vastly older, larger, and more complex than the tribal myths of the ancient Near East could ever encompass. The fossil record continues, patiently and relentlessly, to testify that life was not conjured into existence in a single week, but has been shaped by evolution, geology, and time on a scale that leaves creationism stranded in the fearful infancy from which it arose.
And as usual, the stones beneath our feet tell the truth — whether creationists approve of it or not.
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