Paleontologists have actually desribed a brand-new types of big passerine bird based the fossilized remains from the Bannockburn Formation near St Bathans in Otago, New Zealand.

The newly-described bird resided in New Zealand throughout the Early Miocene date, some 19 million years earlier.

Called the St Bathans currawong (Miostrepera canorathe types would have had to do with the very same size as the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicendiscovered in New Zealand today however was most likely all black.

“We maltreat the magpie as an Australian that has no location in the New Zealand community however its close loved ones lived here in the past,” stated Dr. Paul Scofield, senior manager at Canterbury Museum.

“We’ve most likely lacked a member of the magpie’s extended household for just 5 million years.”

“New Zealand’s community has actually altered significantly over countless years and harbored varied types throughout various ages,” included Dr. Trevor Worthy, a scientist at Flinders University.

“There’s a concept that we ought to intend to return New Zealand to a pre-European environmental state.”

“But at that point in time, New Zealand’s environments had actually been altering continually for countless years.”

“Aotearoa had actually lost much of the flower variety previously present by the time people got here.”

“There were couple of fruiting tree types left and the loss of currawongs and other pigeons shows this.”

“Other groups of plants and animals showed up from 2.6 million to 11,700 years back.”

“Many more have actually shown up considering that people inhabited the land.”

“The pre-European environmental state of New Zealand is not always any much better or even worse than any other time in the past.”

“Instead, the fossil record recommends there was no utopian state which we must commemorate the variety we presently have.”

The fossilized bones of Miostrepera canora were discovered at St Bathans fossil website, which was when at the bottom of a big ancient lake.

“The work has actually exposed that New Zealand’s bird population in the Miocene age had remarkably strong resemblances to that of Australia today,” Dr. Scofield stated.

“During the Miocene, 20 to 5 million years earlier, New Zealand was much various.”

“Walking through a New Zealand forest from that period, you would have seen many eucalypts, laurels and Casuarina, just like you would in an Australian forest today.”

“The significant thing that formed the New Zealand we see today was the termination of lots of plants and animals that flourished in warm environments after a duration of quick cooling that started about 13 million years earlier.”

“The unique call of the currawong would not have actually been the only birdsong you would hear in ancient New Zealand.”

The discovery of Miostrepera canora is reported in a paper in the journal PalZ

_____

T.H. Worthy et alA big cracticine passerine (Aves, Artamidae, Cracticinae) from the Early Miocene, St Bathans Fauna of New Zealand. PalZreleased June 25, 2025; doi: 10.1007/ s12542-025-00736-x