Moa Mummies

The Moa was a truly unique bird that once roamed New Zealand, but despite its disappearance we still know a lot about it. Thanks to some truly amazing specimens.

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References:
Allentoft, M.E. and Rawlence, N.J., 2012. Moa's Ark or volant ghosts of Gondwana? Insights from nineteen years of ancient DNA research on the extinct moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) of New Zealand. Annals of Anatomy-Anatomischer Anzeiger, 194(1), pp.36-51.
Anderson, A., 2003. Prodigious birds: Moas and moa-hunting in New Zealand. Cambridge University Press.
Baker, A.J., Haddrath, O., McPherson, J.D. and Cloutier, A., 2014. Genomic support for a moa–tinamou clade and adaptive morphological convergence in flightless ratites. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 31(7), pp.1686-1696.
Forrest, R.M., 1987. A partially mummified skeleton of Anomalopteryx didiformis from Southland. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 17(4), pp.399-408.
McWethy, D.B., Whitlock, C., Wilmshurst, J.M., McGlone, M.S., Fromont, M., Li, X., Dieffenbacher-Krall, A., Hobbs, W.O., Fritz, S.C. and Cook, E.R., 2010. Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(50), pp.21343-21348.
Tennyson, A.J., WorTHy, T.H., Jones, C.M., Scofield, R.P. and Hand, S.J., 2010. Moa’s Ark: Miocene fossils reveal the great antiquity of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) in Zealandia. Records of the Australian Museum, 62(1), pp.105-114.
Teviotdale, D., 1932. The material culture of the moa-hunters in Murihiku. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 41(2 (162), pp.81-120.
TREY the Explainer., 2019. Dinosaur "Mummies". Available at:    • Dinosaur "Mummies"  
Rawlence, N.J., Wood, J.R., Armstrong, K.N. and Cooper, A., 2009. DNA content and distribution in ancient feathers and potential to reconstruct the plumage of extinct avian taxa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276(1672), pp.3395-3402.
Rawlence, N.J., Wood, J.R., Scofield, R.P., Fraser, C. and Tennyson, A.J., 2013. Soft-tissue specimens from pre-European extinct birds of New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 43(3), pp.154-181.
Worthy, T.H., 1990. An analysis of the distribution and relative abundance of moa species (Aves: Dinornithiformes). New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 17(2), pp.213-241.
Worthy, T.H. and Holdaway, R.N., 2002. The lost world of the moa: prehistoric life of New Zealand. Indiana University Press.
Yonezawa, T., Segawa, T., Mori, H., Campos, P.F., Hongoh, Y., Endo, H., Akiyoshi, A., Kohno, N., Nishida, S., Wu, J. and Jin, H., 2017. Phylogenomics and morphology of extinct paleognaths reveal the origin and evolution of the ratites. Current Biology, 27(1), pp.68-77.
Yorkshire Museum (2024) The Yorkshire Museum’s South Island Giant Moa – a huge bird a long way from home. Available at: https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/co...