Is the tuatara really a missing link? To what? Who or what were the first 'New Zealanders'? How extensive were New Zealand dinosaurs? Could there have once been New Zealand mammals that haven't yet been discovered? When was New Zealand completely under water, and how do we know? What is our latest information about how New Zealand evolved? What do the newest fossil discoveries show us? In this wonderful book palaeontologist Hamish Campbell and natural history writer Gerard Hutching present an exciting new account of New Zealand's evolution aimed at the general reader. For the first time the story of the 8th continent of Zealandia is revealed. From 3-billion-year-old grains of sand found in present-day rocks, through the momentous breakaway from Gondwanaland to the drowning and uplift of New Zealand giving rise to today's landscapes, this new book traces our absorbing geological story. Hamish Campbell's new thesis will attract headlines on publication. The book is brilliantly illustrated. Photographs of fossils, rocks and the current landscape are linked to outstanding state-of-the-art digital imagery from the files of the New Zealand Institute for Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

About the Author

Hamish Campbell is one of New Zealand's leading palaeontologists with a special gift for communicating science to lay people. He works for the Institute for Geological and Nuclear Sciences and Te Papa. Gerard Hutching is a natural history writer. He is a former editor of Forest and Bird magazine and is the author of the bestselling The Natural World of New Zealand.