Supported by the Marsden Fund and joined by Dr. Paul Scofield, Worthy returned to the limestone hills to dig past the familiar layers. What they found was a chronological pocket of the Early Pleistocene, preserved by the unique chemistry of the Oligocene limestone. The fossils were found perfectly sandwiched between two distinct geological markers: a layer of ash from an eruption 1.55 million years ago and another from a massive volcanic event 1 million years ago. This stratigraphic seal allowed the team to date the remains with a precision rarely seen in such ancient terrestrial sites.
Among the remains of 12 bird species and four frogs, one skeleton stood out. It belonged to Strigops insulaborealis, a newly described relative of the modern kākāpō. Unlike its heavy, ground-dwelling descendant, this ancient parrot possessed leg bones that suggest it still retained the strength and lightness required for flight. It lived in a New Zealand that was still being violently forged by the Taupō Volcanic Zone, a time before the islands became the quiet, predator-free sanctuary that eventually led many of its birds to abandon their wings.
The collection also includes the remains of an ancestor to the takahē and an extinct pigeon related to the Australian bronzewing, painting a picture of a landscape in constant flux. These creatures were the inhabitants of a "lost world," reshaped by climate shifts and the immense power of the Mangakino caldera. For Trevor Worthy, the find is a culmination of decades of patience, a return to a place that had held its breath for a millennium until the right hands came to uncover it.
The fossils will eventually be housed at the Waitomo Museum, remaining in the district where they were found. In a gesture of gratitude for the stewardship of the land, one of the newly identified species has been named after the Clayton-Greene family, who have farmed these limestone hills for over a century, unknowingly walking above the bones of birds that flew when the mountains were young.