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The moa is among those extinct animals that continue to fascinate and disturb in equal measure. Not only because of its enormous size, but above all because its disappearance is comparatively recent. Just a few centuries ago, these flightless birds roamed the forests, moors, and grasslands of New Zealand. Today,
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New Zealand director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, Braindead) is supporting an ambitious project to revive the South Island giant moa. Together with the US biotech firm Colossal Biosciences, the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, and the Canterbury Museum, the flightless bird that went extinct in the 14th or
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New Zealand, known for its unique wildlife and flora, holds many secrets from the past. One of them was revealed by a recent study in Biology Letters: the extinct upland moas (Megalapteryx didinus) were not only majestic birds, but also played a central role in dispersing colorful, truffle-like fungi such
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A rare taxidermied pair of huia birds could fetch up to NZ$128,000 at an auction in London. Organized by Roseberys London, the auction is scheduled for October 2024. The huia pair, consisting of a male and a female, dates back to the late 19th century and is considered extremely rare.
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The largest bird of prey in modern times Before humans settled New Zealand about 700 years ago and introduced invasive species like cats and rats, there were no land-dwelling mammals on the islands – aside from three species of bats. Instead, the ecosystem was dominated by approximately 250 bird species.
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From isolated paradise to endangered habitat Stephens Island, a small rocky island in the Cook Strait, is renowned for its unique wildlife. Despite covering only 1.5 square kilometers, the island boasts a remarkable ecosystem that was once home to numerous endemic species, including many land and seabirds. Among its notable
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The tragic story of Lyall’s wren Like the dodo, Lyall’s wren is one of the best-known examples of the extinction of bird species, because the circumstances of its disappearance are as striking as they are tragic. The story of Lyall’s wren is often told with dramatic simplicity: a cat, brought
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The settlement of the Pacific Islands by humans led to rapid waves of extinction for many animal species, whose dynamics are difficult to reconstruct. Among the affected species were the wingless moas, which were only found in New Zealand. These often massive birds went extinct in the 14th or 15th
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The largest gecko in the world … In the early 1980s, French museum employee Alain Delcourt discovered a forgotten specimen of a single stuffed giant gecko in the basement of the Natural History Museum of Marseille, which had previously been on public display for years. This species was previously unknown
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A team of evolutionary biologists has reconstructed the nearly complete genome of the bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis), a flightless bird from New Zealand that went extinct 500 to 600 years ago. Researchers from Harvard University, East Carolina University, Osaka University, and the University of Toronto sequenced ancient DNA from a
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