Miniscule flightless birds have lived in New Zealand's wetlands for millions of years
February 28, 2018, University of New South Wales
Fossilized bones of two new species of tiny, flightless extinct birds have been discovered by Australasian scientists in 19 to 16-million-year-old sediments of an ancient lake on the South Island of New Zealand.
The two miniscule species—one barely larger than a sparrow—were members of the rail family, a group of birds common today in wetlands that includes swamphens, moorhens, coots and crakes. Their remains were unearthed near the town of St Bathans in Central Otago.
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https://phys.org/news/2018-02-miniscule-flightless-birds-zealand-wetlands.html#jCp
