When the ancient fossils of a primitive land mammal were unearthed in New Zealand, they provided the first concrete evidence that the island country had once had indigenous land mammals  Until that discovery, New Zealand had no known native land mammals
The discovery thus falsifies the theory that New Zealand' s rich and varied native bird population owes its existence to the lack of competition from mammals
The unearthed land mammal is only one of several ancient land mammals that were indigenous to New Zealand.