Abstract
Abstract The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the fluvial deposits of a limestone fissure cave in the Waitomo district, western North Island, are described. A microflora, from 60 cm depth and possibly of Otiran age, indicates the former presence of lowland mixed broadleaf-podocarp forest. Faunal remains, found only in the uppermost 25 ern of the deposits, are probably no older than Holocene. Every member of the fauna, comprising 14 species of land bird, a skink, at least one species of frog and 13 species of land snail, inhabited forest. Fewer than half the bird species represented in the subfossil deposits currently inhabit the area, owing primarily to human clearance of indigenous forest. Three species, Notornis mantelli, Strigops habroptilus and Notiomystis cinca, now have exceedingly reduced distribution, and two others, Fulica chathamensis and Megaegotheles nooaezealandiae, are extinct.
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