Perfectly Preserved Moa Prints Discovered
Michael Johnston was out taking his boss’s dog for a dip in a nearby river in Ranfurly, when he stumbled across some unusual markings in the waterbed. Jonathan Ore writes about the discovery for a…
Tag Archives: moa
Origins of Extinct Adzebill Traced to Africa
Scientists at the University of Adelaide have revealed the African origins of New Zealand’s most mysterious giant flightless bird – the now extinct adzebill – showing that some of its closest living relatives are…
Fossil Poop Reveals Critical Role of Giant Birds in NZ’S Ecosystem
“When the first humans landed on what is now known as New Zealand 700 years ago, they didn’t find mammals. Instead, they discovered giant birds called moas, as well as a host of other…
South Canterbury Contractors Unearth Moa Bones
Contractors at a site in South Canterbury have made an unexpected find while digging a trench – dozens of bones belonging to the long-extinct moa. Workers spotted the bones during excavations in an area which…
Moa’s Range of Ecological Roles Irreplaceable
Filling the ecological gap left by the extinction of the moa with imported Australian emus and cassowaries would not work, according to insights into the giant flightless birds’ feeding behaviours. The findings, reported in the…
NZ Scientists Bring Extinct Birds Back to Life
A collaboration between scientists at Massey University, the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa bring extinct birds species back to life with 3D scanning. “Technology like 3D printing is the way of the…
Flying Australian Kiwis Could Put Paid to Moa Ancestry
New fossil research suggests the flightless kiwi and emu share a common ancestor able to fly, which travelled over to New Zealand from Australia millions of years ago. Experts have long assumed that the kiwi…
Moa Bones Kill Dino DNA Dream
The dream of resuscitating dinosaur species – a la Jurassic Park – has been dealt a death blow in a new study examining the decay rate of DNA in the bones of the extinct…
Mammoth but fragile
Australian scientists have found that eggs from the giant flightless moa were miniscule and vastly disproportionate to the bird. Eggshells identified by DNA as belonging to the two largest, heaviest moa species, Dinornis robustus…
Moa Eggshells Tell All
Scientists in New Zealand and Australia have extracted the DNA from the fossil eggshells of 3000-year-old moa. It is the first time that scientists have succeeded in extracting ancient DNA from the fossilised eggshells…
Ancient Mystery Solved
The now extinct giant Haast’s eagle ruled the skies over New Zealand 750 years ago attacking moa from mountain perches and capable of killing small children. Because of their large size – these eagles…
True Colours
The oldest moa feathers yet discovered and their DNA are providing New Zealand and Australian scientists with clues to the plumage of the giant bird – perhaps not unlike a giant chicken and speckled…
Pre-Human New Zealand
Paleontology researchers from the University of Adelaide, University of Otago, and the NZDEC have begun to paint a picture of ancient life on the New Zealand islands by investigating the feces of the giant…
Moa, Moa and More Moa
New scientific evidence reveals that humans may not be entirely responsible for the extinction of the moa. According to research undertaken in NZ and the US, there were 3 to 12 million moa roaming the forests…
These Wings are Made for Walking …
A team of NZ researchers – led by David Lambert of Auckland’s Massey University – has broken new ground in the field of genetics to reveal previously unknown details about the moa. In a world first,…
Bird DNA
“The first ever functional genome sequences from an extinct species have been mapped by scientists at Oxford University. The mitochondrial DNA sequences were obtained from two giant moa and a Madagascan elephant-bird.”
Old Birds
Entering into the debate over cloning, Dr. Alan Cooper of Oxford comments that, despite the moa-mapping efforts of his team, “it is crucial that we do not become complacent and start assuming that we will be…
Moa Manipulation
Digital manipulation is an example of Stephen Jay Gould’s ‘Great Asymmetry’: creation takes much longer than destruction or consumption. “It takes millions or billions of years for evolution to produce a species well-adapted to its environment, while…
Moa Simulation: The Strange World of Canterbury Ecology
New Zealand has more small-leaved, tangled shrubs than anywhere else in the world. Some experts think the plants evolved like this to deter the now-extinct moa from making them dinner, but Canterbury University ecologist Dave Kelly doesn’t…
The Mighty Moa
Preview of Discovery Programme: “Discovery takes a look at an extraordinary (and extinct) New Zealand bird, the moa. The story of the moa is one of mystery and imagination. It reads like a good detective story”.
New Zealand Scientists Find out More About Moa
In an article in Science new evidence suggests that a huge flightless birds called the moa was extinct within a few decades after humans’ first arrived at the bird’s New Zealand homeland, suggesting that whole species can…
