Heracles inexpectatus: A Giant Parrot from the Early Miocene of South Island, New Zealand.

The phenomenon of gigantism in island Birds is well documented, with examples such as the Dodo, Raphus cucullatus, of Mauritius, and Solitaire, Pezophaps solitaria,  of Rodrigues (Giant Pigeons), the extinct Sylviornithidae of New Caledonia and Fiji, the Fiji Giant Ground Pigeon, Natunaornis gigoura, and a variety of Giant Waterfowl, Storks, Rails, Owls and Raptors from other islands. In many cases these Birds were early colonisers of small islands, where one of the first Birds to arrive typically evolved into a 'Giant Bird' niche. However the situation in New Zealand is more complex, with a large, complex ecosystem evolving in the absence of Mammals, which has produced a wide range of large Birds, including the extinct Moas, Waterfowl, Rails, and Eagles.

In a paper published in the journal Biology Letters on 7 August 2019, Trevor Worthy of the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, Suzanne Hand and Michael Archer of the PANGEA Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, and Paul Scofield and Vanesa De Pietri of the Canterbury Museum, describe a Giant Parrot from the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of South Island, New Zealand.

The St Bathans Fauna comes from a series of exposures of the lower Bannockburn Formation in the Otago Region of New Zealand. It comprises a suite of fossils laid down in a shallow lake between 19 and 16 million years ago. The lake was surrounded by a floodplain covered by subtropical vegetation including Casuarinas, Eucalypts and Palms as well as Podocarps, Araucarias and Southern Beeches. The fossiliferous layers have produced numerous disarticulated vertebrate remains, including Fish, Crocodylians, Squamates, and, most notably, Birds. These deposits are considered particularly important, as they record a time just after the Oligocene 'Great Drowning', when high sealevels left about 80% of New Zealand underwater, and is therefore thought to preserve an important stage in the assembling of the modern fauna of New Zealand.

The new species is named Heracles inexpectatus, where 'Heracles' honours the mythical Greek hero of the same name, for his slaying of Neleus, King of Pylos, after whom the largest Parrot previously known from the St Bathans Fauna to date was named, and 'inexpectatus' means 'unexpected'. The species is described from a partial left tibiotarsus and matching partial right tibiotarsus (the tibiotarsus is the lower leg bone of a Bird, the equivalent of the human shin. The describing of fossil Birds from leg bones alone is not unusual, as these are more robust than most of the Avian skeleton, and therefore more likely to be preserved.

Tibiotarsi of Heracles inexpectatus, left, holotype (a), (b), (f ) NMNZ S.51083 and right, paratype (g), compared to (d), (e) left tibiotarsus of the modern Kakapo, Strigops habroptila (Canterbury Museum Av45277), in craniolateral (a) and cranial (b)–(g) views. (c) Silhouettes of a Human and Heracles inexpectatuss for scale. Scale bars are 20 mm. Abbreviations: ccl, crista cnemialis lateralis; cl, condylus lateralis; cm, condylus medialis; dtl, distal insertion scar for transverse ligament; fc, fibular crest; lfr, lateral scar for fibular retinaculum; lic, linea intermuscularis cranialis; mfr, mediocranial scar for fibular retinaculum; pons, pons supratendineus; ptl, proximal insertion scar for transverse ligament; se, sulcus extensorius; sf, sulcus m. fibularis; trf, tuberculum retinaculi m. fibularis. Worthy et al. (2019).

Both of the preserved bones are incomplete, lacking the proximal and distal ends (top and bottom), but display a series of traits that enable them to be confidently assigned to a Parrot. These include a sulcus extensorius (deep groove) located near mid-shaft, a shaft  that widens asymmetrically and flattens craniocaudally (downwards), a horizontally aligned and reduced pons supratendineus (groove at the base), large and prominent insertion scars for the transverse ligament with the distolateral scar close to the pons supratendineus.

The bones are exceptionally large and robust, with a minimum shaft circumference of 35.8 mm. Based upon this Worthy et al. suggest that the living Heracles inexpectatus, would have had a mass of about 6.96 kg, the equivalent of a small-to-medium Dog, and almost twice the mass of the Kakapo, Strigops habroptila, the largest living Parrot, and that like the Kakapo it was probably a large, ground-dwelling Bird.

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Homes evacuated after chemical spill in Ortago, New Zealand.

A number of homes in the town of Milton in the Otago Region of South Island, New Zealand, were evacuated following a chemical spill on Friday 7 September 2018. Crews from Fire and Emergency New Zealand were called to the scene after a 25 litre drum of the chemical Chloropicrin (CCl₃NO₂) sprang a leak. Homes within 300 m of the incident were evacuated while the chemical was cleaned up by crews wearing specialist protective clothing, and people have now been allowed to return to their homes.

Two members of Fire and EmergencyNew Zealand remove a drum containing the chemical chloropicrin from a residential street in Milton, Otago. Mary-Jo Tohill/Stuff.

Chloropicin is widely used as a broad spectrum microbial, fungicide and pesticide, particularly in agriculture where it can be used as a fumigant - injected into the soil in a liquid form, where it forms a gas that kills agricultural pests. The chemical is toxic and carcinogenic (it was used as a chemical weapon during the First World War and is still essentially used as a poison today), and due to its volatile nature should only be handled by people with specialist training wearing appropriate protective clothing.

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Kumimanu biceae: A new species of Giant Penguins from the Late Palaeocene of Otago, New Zealand.

Penguins, Sphenisciformes, first appeared in the Palaeocene of New Zealand, and subsequently spread around the Southern Hemisphere, reaching Antarctica, South America, Africa, and the Galapagos Islands. While typically associated with cool climates today, Penguins probably reached their most diverse during the warm greenhouse climates of the Oligocene and Eocene, when a number of giant species (species significantly larger than modern Emperor Penguins, Aptenodytes forsteri) are known from New Zealand and Antarctica.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications on 12 December 2017, Gerald Mayr of the Ornithological Section at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Paul Scofield  and Vanesa De Pietri of the Canterbury Museum, and Alan Tennyson of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, describe a new species of Giant Penguin from the Late Palaeocene of Hampden Beach in Otago, South Island.

The new species is named Kumimanu biceae, where 'Kumimanu' means 'Monster Bird' in Maori and 'biceae' honours Alan Tennyson's mother, Beatrice ('Bice') Tennyson. It is described from a partial skeleton comprising a partial left scapula, an incomplete right coracoid, part of the sternum, a partial left humerus, an incomplete left ulna, the right femur, most of the right tibiotarsus, a partial synsacrum, three vertebrae, and various bone fragments. From these it is estimated to have had a body length of about 1.77 m, and a mass of about 101 kg.

Wing and pectoral girdle bones of the new Giant Penguin, Kumimanu biceae. (a) Whole specimen, partially prepared concretion with all bones in situ. (b) Right coracoid in dorsal view (dotted lines indicate reconstructed outline of bone). (c) Left coracoid of Waimanu tuatahi from the late Paleocene of New Zealand. (d)–(f) Fragmentary proximal end of the left ulna of Kumimanu biceae in (d) dorsal, (e) ventral, and (f) proximal view. (g), (h) Left ulna of an undescribed new Sphenisciform from the Waipara Greensand in (g) ventral and (h) proximal view; the dashed line in (g) indicates the portion of the bone preserved in the  Kumimanu biceae. (i) CT image of cranial surface of partial left humerus. (j) Exposed caudal surface of the bone, surrounding bones and matrix were digitally brightened. (k), (l) CT images of caudal humerus surface with (k) minimum and (l) maximum length estimates based on the reconstructed outline of the bone (dotted lines). (m) Left humerus of Crossvallia unienwillia from the late Paleocene of Antarctica, which is one of the largest previously known Paleocene Penguin species. (n) Left humerus of Pachydyptes ponderous from the late Eocene of New Zealand, which was previously considered one of the largest fossil penguins. Abbreviations: cor, coracoid; dcp, dorsal cotylar process; fem, femur; fpt, fossa pneumotricipitalis; hum, humerus; olc, olecranon; ppc, procoracoid process; scc, scapular cotyla; sup, attachment scar for supracoracoideus muscle; tbt, tibiotarsus; vct, ventral cotyla. Scale bars equal 50 mm; same scale for (b) and (c), (f) and (h), and (i)-(l), respectively. Mayr ey al. (2017).

A phylogenetic analysis suggests that Kumimanu biceae is not closely related to the Giant Penguins of the Oligocene and Eocene, but represents a separate evolutionary lineage that arose from smaller ancestors. Mayr et al. note that the appearance of such a large Penguin so shortly after the End Cretaceous Extinction is significant, and that this may imply Penguins reached large sizes not in response to the warm climate of the Oligocene and Eocene, but rather the sudden absence of large Marine Reptiles, creating an evolutionary niche that few other groups were ready to exploit. They further observe that the disappearance of these large forms by the end of the Eocene may, therefore, not by due to the cooling climate of the time, but rather the appearance of Marine Mammals such as Toothed Whales and Seals, which would have occupied a similar ecological niche to the Giant Penguins, and in the case of Seals, competed with them directly for coastal breeding grounds.

 Further bones of Kumimanu biceae. (a) Cranial portion of left scapula; in (b) the surrounding matrix and bones were digitally removed; the dotted line demarks an overlying bone fragment. (c) Left scapula of Waimanu tuatahi from the late Paleocene of New Zealand. (d), (e) Thoracic vertebra of Kumimanu biceae in (d) caudal and (e) right lateral view. (f) Right femur of Kumimanu biceae in craniomedial view. (g) Kumimanu biceae, sternum in cranial view. (h) Right tibiotarsus in cranial view. (i) Digitally reconstructed distal end of tibiotarsus, in which the medial condyle was brought into its presumed original position and a piece of adhering bone fragment and matrix were removed. (j) Distal end of right tibiotarsus of Waimanu manneringi. Abbreviations: afh, articulation facet of humerus; cas, coracoidal articulation sulcus; cdf, caudal articulation facet; crf, cranial articulation facet; ext, extensor sulcus; fem, femur; fib, fibular crest; lcd, lateral condyle; mcd, medial condyle; stk, sternal keel; vtp, ventral process. Scale bars equal 50mm. Mayr ey al. (2017).

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Vulcanops jennyworthyae: A new species of Burrowing Bat from the Miocene of New Zealand.

New Zealand broke away from the Australian and Antarctic sections of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana roughly 130 million years ago, and has developed a unique flora and fauna made up of the descendants of animals and plants that were present at the time of this split, plus the decedents of a few species that  have managed to reach the landmass since. Prior to the arrival of the first Humans on the islands 800 years ago, there were only three Mammal species present throughout the whole of New Zealand, all of them Bats. Of these, one species, Chalinolobus tuberculatus, has close relatives in Australia, and is thought to have reached New Zealand less than two million years ago. The other two species, Mystacina tuberculata and Mystacina robusta, are placed in their own family, the Mystacinidae, also known as Burrowing Bats, due to the large amounts of time they spend on the ground foraging under leaf litter. These Bats are found nowhere other than New Zealand today, though fossil specimens are known from the Oligocene and Miocene of Australia and the Miocene of New Zealand. Burrowing Bats are considered to be members of the Noctilionoidea, the Bat superfamily that also includes the American groups Phyllostomidae (Leaf Nosed Bats), Noctilionidae (Bulldog Bats), Mormoopidae (Moustached Bats), Furipteridae (Smokey and Thumbless Bats), and Thyropteridae (Disk-winged Bats), and possibly the Madagascan Myzopodidae (Sucker-footed Bats).

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on 10 January 2018, Suzanne Hand of the PANGEA Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Robin Beck of the School of Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Salford, Michael Archer, also of the PANGEA Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Nancy Simmons of the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History, Gregg Gunnell of the Division of Fossil Primates at the Duke University Lemur Center, Paul Scofield of the Canterbury Museum, Alan Tennyson of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Vanesa De Pietri, also of the Canterbury Museum, Steven Salisbury of the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland, and Trevor Worthy of Biological Sciences at Flinders University, describe a new species of Burrowing Bat from the Early Miocene St Bathans fossil assemblage of the Otago Region of South Island, New Zealand.

The new species is named Vulcanops jennyworthyae, where 'Vulcanops' means 'Vulcan Bat' in reference to the volcanic nature of much of New Zealand, and the Vulcan Hotel in St Bathans, and 'jennyworthyae' honours Jennifer Worthy of the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales, for her work on the fauna of the St Bathans fossil assemblage. The species is described from a single fragment of left dentary (jawbone) with two molar teeth, plus a series of detached teeth.

Vulcanops jennyworthyae, Bannockburn Formation, St Bathans, Central Otago, New Zealand. Lower dentition. Left dentary fragment containing m2-3. (a) Buccal view; (b–b’) stereopair, occlusal view; (c) lingual view m2-3. Right molar (d–d’) Stereopair, oblique occlusal view; (e) buccal view; (f) occlusal view. Abbreviations: cld, cingulid; co, cristid obliqua; end, entoconid; ecd, entocristid; hyd, hypoconid; hyl, hypoconulid; med, metaconid; pacd, paracristid; pad, paraconid; pcd, postcristid; prcd, protocristid; prd, protoconid; tal, talonid; trig, trigonid. Scale bars are 2 mm. Hand et al. (2018).

Vulcanops jennyworthyae appears to have been fairly large for a Bat, with an estimated mass of 40 g. The dentition of this species suggests that it was omnivorous, as is the case with modern Burrowing Bats, which eat a range of Arthropods and plant matter, though the larger size of the specimen the presence of a large hypocone on its upper molars, suggests that it might have been capable of taking larger prey than its modern relatives, possibly including small Vertebrates.

A phylogenetic analysis of the Noctilionoidea including Vulcanops jennyworthyae did not support the idea that the Madagascan Myzopodidae are members of this group, or even closely related to it, though it did suggest that some fossil Bats from the Eocene of Egypt may be closely related to the group. This is consistent with a model in which the ancestors of the Noctilionoidea split from their closest ancestors in Africa during the Eocene, and spread across South America, Antarctica and Australia to New Zealand during the Oligocene and Miocene, when Australia, Antarctica and South America were all connected and New Zealand, though already an island, was still much closer to Australia and Antarctica. At this time Antarctica was still largely covered by forest (the preferred habitat of most Bats), with tropical forests covering much of the continent about 50 million years ago, which was replaced by temperate forests by 15 million years ago.

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