 Marked global cooling and drying during the Miocene, Pliocene and the Pleistocene Ice Ages resulted in the extinction of the ‘subtropical’ elements of the St Bathans’ fauna.Those that survived adapted to the dynamic geological and climatic changes, and would form part of the enigmatic fauna that characterised New Zealand when humans arrived in the late 13th century.Research on the St Bathans fauna is led by Trevor Worthy, a New Zealander based in Flinders University, Adelaide.