Geography of New Caledonia a refugium, in effect a biological "Noah's Ark", an island home to both unique living plants and animals and also to its own special fossil endowment. Birds such as the crested and almost flightless kagu (French, "cagou") "Rhynochetos jubatus", whose closest relative may be the distantly related sunbittern of South America, and plants such as "Amborella trichopoda", the only known member of the most basal living branch of flowering plants, make this island a treasure trove and a critical concern for biologists and conservationists. The island was home to horned fossil turtles ("Meiolania mackayi") and terrestrial fossil crocodiles ("Mekosuchus inexpectatus")
Creature type (Dungeons & Dragons) an insect, arachnid, arthropod, worm, or other invertebrate. Some have magical abilities, and others are giant versions of real insects. Most vermin are considered mindless individually. Since many vermin are too small to model individually, they are often represented as swarms (clusters that act like single creatures and sometimes have hive minds). In 4th edition, type was split into types and origins. "Beast", "humanoid" and "monstrous humanoid" remained classified as creature types, while many subtypes from earlier editions were converted to keywords, as were some types, such as "undead" and "construct". "Animates" are magically animated creatures, such as golems, zombies