What are some of New Zealand's prehistoric artifacts?

What are some of New Zealand's prehistoric artifacts?

• plz help...i really suck at searching...thx

• Answer:

  One of the problems of looking for prehistoric artifacts is that New Zealand was not populated until fairly recently. The most common estimate of Maori arrival in New Zealand is around 1200CE, although it has been placed by some as early as 2000 years ago and as recently as 1450s. Apart from 2 species of bats, New Zealand has no non-marine mammals. However this is balanced by a wide diversity of birds and lizards. Of particular interest is the tuatara, also known as a 'living fossil'. The Tuartara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group is with the squamates (lizards and snakes). For this reason, tuatara are of great interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, and for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids (the group that also includes birds and crocodiles).