of New Caledonia was not absolute, given the rise and fall of sea level caused by the ebb and flow of ice ages. Land bridges or islands formed between New Caledonia and its neighbours, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Australia. Thus new species came to New Caledonia while Gondwanan species were able to penetrate the Pacific Islands region. Plants have limited seed dispersal mobility away from the parent plant and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Extinct species Numerous species were wiped out by humans before the arrival of Europeans. Fossils found in cave deposits show the island once had an endemic species of barn owl Tyto letocarti; two extinct hawks, Accipiter efficax, Accipiter quartus; a large, flightless galliform bird, Sylviornis neocaledoniae; a snipe, (Coenocorypha sp.); a gallinule, Porphyrio kukwiedei; the lowland kagu, Rhynochetos orarius; a ground dove, Gallicolumba longitarsus; the pile-builder megapode; a hornbill of Lifou (Loyalty Islands); a possibly extinct lorikeet, Charmosyna diadema; as well as a giant bat, arthropods and others. The island also hosted the giant terrestrial turtle Meiolania, unlike any alive today which was armed with a clubbed tail and a spiked head. There was also a species of terrestrial crocodile, the mekosuchine Mekosuchus inexpectatus which became extinct after the arrival of humans. Both Meiolania and Mekosuchus may have arrived after crossing the ocean, via island hopping and/or wave dispersal from Australia. Ecoregions There are several vegetation types, in a variety of niches, landforms and micro-climates where endemic species thrive, among including dense evergreen forests, maquis (shrubland), sclerophyllous forests (dry forests), wetlands, savannas, and halophytic vegetation. New Caledonia has two terrestrial ecoregions. The greater area is occupied by the eastern New Caledonia rain forests, which covers the eastern part of Grande Terre, Loyalty Islands, and Isle of Pines. In the habitat of tropical montane laurel forest of New Caledonia with Laurisilvas, which are cloud-covered for much of the year, the moist evergreen forests have a closed canopy of moderately sized trees, up to in the lowlands and in montane forest. In humid montane Melaleuca forests of lowland, communities of Mt. Ignambi and of the Yaté Lake with area of low shrubland, is the ideal habitat for the native species. For example, Erythrinas are food plants for some native parakeet species. The now-fragmentary New Caledonia dry forests runs along the west coast of Grand