Hakawai melvillei

Hakawai is an extinct genus of prehistoric birds that lived during the early Miocene to middle Miocene in New Zealand. According to a 2015 paper, Hakawai melvillei was a representative of a large group of birds that comprises the seedsnipes of family Thinocoridae) and the plains-wanderer (family Pedionomidae). This discovery sheds light on evolutionary processes at work when South America, Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand were all parts of Gondwanaland.