Monday, January 01, 2018

The Mount Owens Claw



In 1985, a team of archaeologists were exploring a large cave system on Mount Owen, New Zealand when care across an very large dinosaur-like claw that still had intact flesh and scaly skin.

What was it?

The large claw turned out to be the 3,300-year-old mummified remains of an Upland Moa, a large prehistoric bird that had disappeared from existence centuries earlier.

The Upland Moa (Megalapteryx didinus) was one of at least nine species of moa bird that were endemic to New Zealand, all of which were wiped out within 200 years of the first human contact.

The Upland Moa was one of the smaller Moas, standing a little over 3 feet tall at the back, as compared to the Giant Moas which were six and half feet tall at the back, and which could reach foliage nearly 12 feet off the ground. 

Moa eggs are sometimes found inside caves and at burial sites.

1 comment:

Lucas Machias said...

https://twilightbeasts.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/the-most-and-least-read-posts-of-2017/

https://twilightbeasts.wordpress.com/2016/01/22/lost-as-the-moa-is-lost/