For 20 years researchers have been excavating a fossil site in the small Otago town of St Bathans looking for the tūpuna of the animals we know today.
The latest discovery is a new species of large, extinct, duck.
Nic Rawlence of Otago's Department of Zoology, who got to name the new species, talks to Jesse.
An artist’s impression of Catriona’s shelduck, a new species of large duck (Aves: Anatidae) from the Miocene of New Zealand Photo: Simone Giovanardi