 "Proapteryx", a basal form of kiwi, is known from there.The Miocene ecosystem was recovering from the ‘Oligocene drowning’ a few million years earlier, when up to 80% of the current land area of New Zealand was submerged.The wildlife that lived in, on, and around the palaeolake Manuherikia was uniquely New Zealand, which strongly suggesting that some emergent land remained during this near drowning event.