And best wishes to Stuart Keith on RNZ National, acknowledging that "Good Vibrations" might have been Random Play rather than a good choice…

I must admit, I cant think of a good reason WHY tui would imitate extinct species...

Wonder what kind of call they were imitating? Some species that share the same environment seem to use co-operative calls that sound similar to human ears, such as the predator alarm calls of the…

The classic is tui – one of my family recorded very interesting calls up the 'Kowhititiraki Valley'* in the…

native placental mammal species extinctions in Australia

Different time-frame I think – Flannery was referring to a then recent (1990s) discovery of a fossil placental mammal of something like early Tetiary/Paleogene age, say 50-60 million years, indicating a presence alongside the first marsupials in Australia.

And these changes over hundreds of years, not thousands…

But the point remains valid, it was about dominating the fauna and ecosystems (or not), over tens of millions of years, where relative body size matters. And the extent of that dominance before human arrival and…

Consequently placental mammals, present in the fossil record of Australia, had all gone extinct, out-competed over evolutionary time by more energy-efficient marsupials with their small but well-adapted brains.

Which raises the question, what happened to our terrestrial mammals?

I am so…

. . . placental mammals, present in the fossil record of Australia, had all gone extinct, out-competed over evolutionary time by more energy-efficient marsupials with their small but well-adapted brains.

Not true. Australia has over 50 long-established species of native murid rodent, and around 75 bat species.
Also the non-placental/marsupial…

it is old (and so are some of earth's creatures dwelling in/on it.)

really quite a young country?

Tim Flannery's being Australian

placenta

measuring skulls

All these things are connected, yes really they are.

I had the pleasure of witnessing Tim Flannery being introduced as a speaker to an NZ…

seriously, I have all Tim Flannery's books, and respect his opinons.

Maurice was writing for a commercial brief, and I think he accomplished an excellent resume of the -then- current archaeological & history situations for the late *1960s*.

And not all that much has…

Shadbolt is the only Pakeha writer who has engaged with this (that I know about)

Does Tim Flannery's being Australian disqualify him as a Pakeha?

"unless he excludes the struggle of a restless land to find shape,within some final skin"

let alone the next 2 loaded clauses-

-this land has been under-sea/overseas, and rising to great mountain heights: aside from Maori mythology, Shadbolt is the only Pakeha writer who has…

Geez Joe

While I don't doubt Shadbolt's expertise re. NZ history, I'm perfectly capable of recognising overwrought and portentous for its own sake. It was everywhere when I was growing up, and much of it was Shadbolt's 'official' wordsmithery. Good on him, it was the state-sanctioned style of the day,…

Chris Trotter is sublimely indifferent to such stuff.

(bastards like red-light runners and property developers)

And Bus Lane jumpers. Like ex Nats Party Presidents who skite on TV that they "do it all the time".

Maurice Shadbolt, The Shell Guide to New Zealand, 1968.

If I'd been asked to take a blind guess who wrote that I'd have gone for Chris Trotter.

Graeme may, of course, be making the distinction between history (subsequent to written records) and prehistory (prior to written records) as often used in academia.

"Mountainous New Zealand fell late into the possession of man. Even the oldest proclamation of human tenancy here—perhaps some crude, simple cave-drawing—postdates the rise and…

Graeme may, of course, be making the distinction

Ummm thanks for the info. But it wasn't Graeme............

Graeme – apologies for mis-spelling your name.

How quaint. Dating land by when it was populated by us talking apes.

Graeme may, of course, be making the distinction between history (subsequent to written records) and prehistory (prior to written records) as often used in academia.

Interestingly, Iceland is often said to be (by, for example, Encyclopedia Brittannica)…

My view was that if they were all the band's "friends" they wouldn't mind paying and supporting their endeavours, otherwise they were cutting the legs out from under them...

That's how I see business in the trade industry. Just because one can plumb, do electrics or build, it does not…

the last big bit of land (outside Antarctica) anywhere in the world to be populated by anyone, and that having happened just about 100 years ago, makes it really quite a young country?

How quaint. Dating land by when it was populated by us talking apes.
As for Te Radar,…

...and that having happened just about 100 years ago

I can only assume that's a typo for 1000 years ago

My three sons (copyright) were in rock bands in Auckland and – because I know more than something about that world from considerably damaging experience – I would always tell them that rock'n'roll was “pay at the door”.

Sage advice!
I remember from my days…

And wouldn't you say that this country being the last big bit of land (outside Antarctica) anywhere in the world to be populated by anyone, and…

I knew "Te Radar" well before he was "Te Radar" when he was a fellow student here in Dunedin in the early '90s. (He was good mates with one of my flatmates). He was pretty witty even then and he totally deserves his success…