According to ScienceDaily, scientists have discovered fossils in a New Zealand cave dating back roughly one million years. The find includes remains from what may be a flying ancestor of the kākāpō, a flightless parrot species native to the islands. The fossils reveal an entire ecosystem lost to time, and suggest that volcanic eruptions and dramatic climate shifts were transforming New Zealand's wildlife and driving extinctions millions of years before humans ever set foot on the islands.

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