Scientists have identified two new beetle species on New Zealand's subantarctic islands and three new beetle species on the Chatham Islands. What is today New Zealand and the subantarctic islands group split from Gondwana about 80m years ago and slowly drifted away from what is now Australia and Antarctica. These gaps in the geologic record might be filled with biological information, which is why subantarctic species like beetles attract attention from researchers. There are several other possible origins for these subantarctic beetles. The subantarctic islands are hard and expensive to reach, and researchers tend to focus on what's easiest to collect and most common.

Source: Stuff October 06, 2019 15:56 UTC