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 biodiversity of New Zealand, a large island country located in the south-western Pacific Ocean, is varied and distinctive. The species of New Zealand accumulated over many millions of years as lineages evolved in the local circumstances. New Zealand's pre-human biodiversity exhibited high levels of species endemism, but has experienced episodes of biological turnover. Global extinction approximately 65 Ma resulted in the loss of fauna such as non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs and marine reptiles e.g. mosasaurs, elasmosaurs and plesiosaurs. The ancient fauna is not well known, but at least one species of terrestrial mammal existed in New Zealand around 19 Ma. For at least several million years before the arrival of human and commensal species, the islands had no terrestrial mammals except for bats and seals, the main component of the terrestrial fauna being insects and birds. As recently as the 14th century a component has been introduced by humans, including many terrestrial mammals.
Mystacinidae is a family of unusual bats, the New Zealand short-tailed bats. There is one living genus, Mystacina, with two species, one of which could have possibly become extinct in the 1960s. They are medium-sized bats, about 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in length, with grey, velvety fur.
The New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat is a small-sized omnivorous species endemic to the islands of New Zealand. It is one of two extant and three overall terrestrial mammal species unique to New Zealand. The NZ lesser short-tailed bat's closest relative, M. robusta, was last seen in 1965 and is presumed extinct due to intense predation from ship rats introduced in the last few centuries. These bats are also commonly referred to as pekapeka, their Te Reo Māori name. Lesser short-tailed bats have unique adaptations that differentiate them from bats found in other parts of the world. For example, they are fully capable of moving along the ground to search for food, and the males sing to attract partners, taking turns to do so. Lesser short-tailed bats are a vulnerable species, so extensive conservation work and research are being done to prevent extinction.
Dromornis is a genus of large to enormous prehistoric birds. The species were flightless, possessing greatly reduced wing structures but with large legs, similar to the modern ostrich or emu. They were likely to have been predominantly, if not exclusively, herbivorous browsers. The male of the largest species, Dromornis stirtoni, is a contender for the tallest and heaviest bird, and possibly exhibited aggressive territorial behaviour. They belong to the clade dromornithid, extinct flightless birds known as mihirungs.
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, cetaceans and seals are the only non-introduced mammals in the otherwise bird-dominated faunas.
Icarops is an extinct, possibly paraphyletic genus of mystacine bat with three described species. The genus is known from fossils found at Riversleigh, north-western Queensland, Bullock Creek, Northern Territory, and Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area South Australia Australia. The fossils date from the late Oligocene to early Miocene.
Prior to human settlement, the mammals of New Zealand consisted entirely of several species of bat, and several dozen marine mammal species. Far earlier, during the Miocene, at least one "archaic" terrestrial mammal species is known to have existed, the Saint Bathans mammal. The Māori brought the kurī and kiore in about 1250 CE, and Europeans from 1769 onwards brought the pig, mice, two additional species of rats, weasels, stoats, ferrets and possums and many other species, some of which cause conservation problems for indigenous species.
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.
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.
Manuherikia is a genus of extinct species of ducks from the Miocene of New Zealand. It was described from fossil material of the Saint Bathans Fauna, in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group, found by the Manuherikia River in the Central Otago region of the South Island. The genus name comes from the name of the geological formation in which the fossils were found and, ultimately, from the Manuherikia River and its valley.
Miotadorna is a genus of extinct tadornine ducks from the Miocene of New Zealand. It contains two species, M. sanctibathansi, and M. catrionae.
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.
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.
Plesiotypotherium is an extinct genus of Notoungulate, belonging to the suborder Typotheria. It lived from the Middle to the Late Miocene, and its fossilized remains were discovered in South America.
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.
