Saint Bathans mammal
The Saint Bathans mammal is a currently unnamed extinct primitive mammal from the Early Miocene (Altonian, 18.7 Ma to 15.9 Ma) 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. Discovery The Saint Bathans mammal is currently represented by three specimens in Te Papa: NMNZ S.40958, NMNZ S.41866, and NMNZ S.42214, composed of two lower jaw fragments and a femur respectively. It was part of an assemblage of fossils recovered in Saint Bathans in 1978, in what would later be understood to be the Bannockburn Formation (Manuherikia Group), and first described in 2006. Description Like most small mammal fossils, the Saint Bathans mammal material is rather incomplete, with only a lower jaw fragment and femur being known. The lower jaws are toothless, though the presence of deep tooth sockets suggests that they were toothed in life and that the teeth were lost post-mortem. They