Owlet-nightjars are small crepuscular birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. Most are native to New Guinea, but some species extend to Australia, the Moluccas, and New Caledonia. A flightless species from New Zealand is extinct. There is a single monotypic family Aegothelidae with the genus Aegotheles.
St Bathans, formerly named Dunstan Creek, is a former gold and coal mining town in Central Otago, New Zealand. The settlement was a centre of the Otago Gold Rush, but mining has since long ceased. It is now largely a holiday retreat due to the preservation of many of its historic buildings.
The adzebills, genus Aptornis, were two closely related bird species, the North Island adzebill, Aptornis otidiformis, and the South Island adzebill, Aptornis defossor, of the extinct family Aptornithidae. The family was endemic to New Zealand. A fossil species, Aptornis proasciarostratus, is known from the Miocene Saint Bathans fauna.
Palaelodus is an extinct genus of birds distantly related to flamingos. They were slender birds with long, thin legs and a long neck. Little is known about the shape of their skull or beak. Some paleontologists think Palaelodus was able to swim under water, chasing prey, but the morphology of their feet seems not very well adapted for diving. Rather, it is more likely that they were adapted to browsing for food while swimming or standing in shallow water.
The Saint Bathans mammal is a currently unnamed extinct primitive mammal from the Early Miocene (Altonian) of New Zealand. A member of the Saint Bathans fauna, it is notable for being a late-surviving "archaic" mammal species, neither a placental nor a marsupial. It also provides evidence that flightless fully terrestrial mammals did in fact once live in Zealandia. This is in contrast to modern New Zealand, where bats and seals are the only non-introduced mammals in the otherwise bird-dominated terrestrial faunas.
Nelepsittacus is a genus of extinct New Zealand parrots that is closely related to the genus Nestor. It consists of four species, of which three have been named so far. The species are all known from the early Miocene Saint Bathans Fauna from the Lower Bannockburn Formation in Otago in New Zealand.
Pelecanoides miokuaka is an extinct species of diving petrel of New Zealand. Described in 2007, it is known only from a single humerus bone that was discovered from early Miocene sediments of the Manuherikia Group.
Proapteryx micromeros is an extinct kiwi known from the 16–19 million-year-old early Miocene sediments of the St Bathans Fauna of Otago, New Zealand.
Matuku otagoense, also referred to as the Saint Bathans heron, is an extinct genus and species of heron from the Early Miocene of New Zealand. It was described from fossil material collected in 2007 from the Saint Bathans Fauna of the Bannockburn Formation in Otago, South Island. It was a contemporary of the much smaller Saint Bathans bittern, remains of which have been found in the same sediments. The genus name matuku is a Māori-language word meaning “heron” or "bittern". The specific epithet is a latinisation of the name of the Otago region where the descriptive material was collected.
Rupephaps taketake, also referred to as the Saint Bathans pigeon, is an extinct species of pigeon from the Miocene of New Zealand. It is the first species of columbid to be described from pre-Pliocene fossil deposits in the Australasian region.
The St Bathans fauna is found in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group of Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It comprises a suite of fossilised prehistoric animals from the late Early Miocene (Altonian) period, with an age range of 19–16 million years ago.
Miotadorna is a genus of extinct tadornine ducks from the Miocene of New Zealand. It contains two species, M. sanctibathansi, and M. catrionae.
Dunstanetta johnstoneorum is a genus and species of extinct duck from the Miocene of New Zealand. It was described from fossil material collected from a Saint Bathans Fauna site on Home Hills Station, in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group, in the Manuherikia River valley in the Central Otago region of the South Island. The genus name refers to the Dunstan Range, the mountains of which overlook the fossil site. The specific epithet honours Ann and Euan Johnstone of Home Hills Station.
Matanas enrighti is an extinct duck from the Miocene of New Zealand. It was described from fossil material collected from a Saint Bathans Fauna site near Mata Creek, in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group, in the Manuherikia River valley in the Central Otago region of the South Island.
Pikaihao bartlei, also referred to as Bartle's bittern or the Saint Bathans bittern, is a genus and species of prehistoric small bittern from the Early Miocene of New Zealand. It was described in 2013 from fossil material found in the Saint Bathans Fauna of the Bannockburn Formation, at Home Hills Station in the Manuherikia River valley of Otago, South Island. It was a contemporary of the much larger Saint Bathans heron, remains of which have been found in the same sediments. The genus name Pikaihao comes from the Māori pi and kaihao (“fisherman”). The specific epithet honours Sandy Bartle, Curator of Birds at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa from 1976 to 2009.
The Manuherikia Group is a fluvial-lacustrine sedimentary fill in the Central Otago area of New Zealand, at the site of the prehistoric Lake Manuherikia. The area consists of a valley and ridge topography, with a series of schist-greywacke mountains at roughly ninety degrees to each other. The Manuherika Group occurs in the current basins, and occasionally on the mountains themselves.
Vulcanops jennyworthyae is an extinct species of bat that lived during the Miocene in New Zealand, a large burrowing microchiropteran that probably ate arthropods and plant material around twenty million years before present. It is the type and only described species of the genus Vulcanops.
Heracles inexpectatus is a giant fossil parrot species from New Zealand, assigned to a monotypic genus Heracles, that lived during the early Miocene approximately 16 to 19 million years ago. The species was described from fossils discovered in 2008 at Saint Bathans, Otago, New Zealand. It is believed that the species stood up to 1 m tall and weighed approximately 7 kg (15 lb). Initial analysis suggests it is from the superfamily Strigopoidea, which consists of three confirmed genera of parrots: Nestor, Strigops (kakapo) and the fossil Nelepsittacus. It may have been the ancestor of the kakapo.
Zealandornis is an extinct genus of zealandornithid bird from the early Miocene Bannockburn Formation of Otago, New Zealand. The genus contains a single species, Zealandornis relictus, known from a distal right humerus.
Notochen, also called the Bannockburn swan, is an extinct genus of anatid bird from the Early Miocene Bannockburn Formation of Otago, New Zealand. The genus contains a single species, Notochen bannockburnensis, known from various fossil material.
