Picturing Ancient New Zealand - using clues from science

In conjuring up an image (in words and pictures) of Ancient New Zealand in From Moa to Dinosaurs, we used scientific clues as the basis of each double-page spread. Check out the "How do we know?" boxes in the book to find out what clues we used.

Pages 12 and 13, illustration by Ned Barraud

The pages in the illustration above describe New Zealand 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Long before people arrived here. The mountains were formed through tectonic plates pushing against each other, starting about 5 million years ago, then came the ice ages. On this page the text sets the scene "Icy glaciers were shrinking after an ice age 20,000 years ago came to an end. As the ice retreated, grass and scrub grew, covering the mountainous area above the edge of the forest."

How did we know what animals to depict on these pages?

When I was researching for the book, I remembered a visit many years ago to the Ngarua Caves near Nelson.