– It’s been the general wisdom that New Zealand did not have any native mammals other than one or two bats. Now, scientists have found fossils of a small mammal from 16 million years ago and they are having to do a rethink.
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The discovery of fossils from a waddling, mouse-sized mammal in a New Zealand lake bed has stunned scientists, and could force a “rethink” on the evolution of this country’s animals.
The bones from the primitive mammal, described as unlike any mammal alive today, were discovered in sediment at least 16 million years old. They suggest the mammal was mouse-sized and walked by waddling.