Proapteryx

Proapteryx micromeros is an extinct kiwi known from the 16–19 million-year-old early Miocene sediments of the St Bathans Fauna of Otago, New Zealand.

==Features== P. micromeros is considerably smaller than modern kiwi, weighing around 234.1 – 377g (the smallest living kiwi, Apteryx owenii, weighs at least 800 g), and its more gracile otic process may indicate a shorter bill. It bears distinctively slender hindlimbs, more comparable in terms of proportion to flying birds like the banded rail than to extant kiwi, and it is speculated to have been capable of powered flight, or to have evolved relatively recently from flying ancestors.