Lake Manuherikia was a prehistoric lake which once stretched over some in what is now inland

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It stretched from

Bannockburn Bannockburn (Scottish Gaelic ''Allt a' Bhonnaich'') is an area immediately south of the centre of Stirling in Scotland. It is part of the City of Stirling. It is named after the Bannock Burn, a stream running through the town before flowing int ...

and the

Nevis valley Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nev ...

in the west to

Naseby Naseby is a village in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 687. The village is 14 mi (22.5 km) north of Northampton, 13.3 mi (21.4 km) northeast of Daventry, and 7 ...

in the east, and from the

Waitaki valley The Waitaki River is a large braided river that drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs some south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It starts at the confluence of the ...

in the north to Ranfurly in the south, including much of the area now referred to as the

Maniototo The Maniototo Plain, usually simply known as The Maniototo, is an elevated inland region in Otago, New Zealand. The region roughly surrounds the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Manuherikia River. It is bounded by the Kakanui Range to t ...

.Worthy, T.
Deep secrets: Discovering New Zealand's tropical past
" ''

New Zealand Geographic ''New Zealand Geographic'' is a bi-monthly magazine founded in 1989 and published by Kōwhai Media of Auckland, New Zealand. In the format popularised by ''National Geographic,'' it focuses on the biodiversity, geography, and culture of New Zeal ...

''. Retrieved 25 November 2017 The lake existed from around 19 to 16 million years ago during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

epoch, at which point New Zealand was significantly warmer than the present. The warmer climate of Miocene New Zealand resulted in the lake being surrounded by rich subtropical vegetation. The edges of the lake were fringed with fen and bogland. After the lake dried up, its bed became a fossil-rich layer of sandstone, now known as the

Manuherikia Group The Manuherikia Group is a fluvial-lacustrine sedimentary fill in the Central Otago area of New Zealand, at the site of the prehistoric Lake Manuherikia. The area consists of a valley and ridge topography, with a series of schist-greywacke mountain ...

.Brockie, B.
Otago's lost lake of wonders
"''stuff.co.nz'', 23 February 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2017

References

Former lakes of Oceania Lakes of Otago Geology of New Zealand Central Otago District Neogene paleogeography Miocene Oceania Paleontological sites of New Zealand {{Palaeogeography-stub

See also

References