Ancient Bird Footprints 3.6 Million Years Old Found, Turns Out Only Became Extinct 600 Years Ago

The following is the translation of the 'Bahasa' text to 'English' while preserving any html tags: "Fossil Footprints of Ancient Birds, Aged 3.6 Million Years, Found, Turns Out to Have Only Gone Extinct 600 Years Ago"

A footprint consists of seven moa footprints and one separate footprint was discovered by paleontologists in the Maniototo Conglomerate river formation in the Kyeburn River, South Island, New Zealand. In their research, Kane Fleury from the Tūhura Otago Museum and his team found that these footprints were left by members of the moa family Emeidae, most likely belonging to the genus Pachyornis.

The translated text while preserving the HTML tags would be: "The footprint has a depth of 4.6 cm, a width of 27.2-30 cm, and a length of 26-29.4 cm. The Moa that made this footprint has an average mass of 84.61 kg and moves at a speed of 2.61 km/h."

Surprising discovery was made when the 3D photogrammetry model of the fossil site revealed the presence of the second moa, which left separate tracks with a width of approximately 44.8 cm and a length of 28.5 cm.

Ancient Bird Footprints 3.6 Million Years Old Found, Turns Out Only Became Extinct 600 Years Ago

The following translation from 'Bahasa' to 'English' preserves the HTML tags: "The animal belongs to the Dinornithidae family, and most likely belongs to the Dinornis genus, with an estimated mass of around 158 kg."

The following is the translation of the given text from 'Bahasa' to 'English' while preserving any HTML tags: "The footprint is the second oldest moa fossil, considering that the single footprints from the Dinornithidae family, moa, reached its legendary size during the Pliocene era. 'Most of the remains or moa footprints are very recent in terms of geology, less than 10,000 years old,' said Dr. Fleury."

"However, the footprints of Kyeburn have been buried since 3.6 million years ago, thus offering a rare insight into the poorly understood period of moa evolution. This makes it more significant," explained Fleury.
Moa is a genus of giant flightless birds (Dinornithiformes), consisting of nine species that existed during the Late Quaternary period. Moa has been considered extinct for the past 600 years.

"Swipe Up"

"Having various sizes"

This species has a variation in size, ranging from large turkeys like Euryapteryx curtus to giant female moas measuring 3 meters tall (Dinornis spp.). Some species show significant sexual dimorphism, with females being much larger than males.

Moa seems to adapt to various habitats and feeding patterns. They inhabit environments such as subalpine areas, forests, and open grassy shrublands.

Moa is a significant natural food source for the Māori people until their extinction.

The first moa footprints were discovered around the mouth of the Tūranganui River in Tairawhiti Gisborne in 1866.

"Since then, several sporadic findings have been discovered in the North Island, but recently moa footprints were found in the South Island, including the newly described Kyeburn footprints discovered in Paeroa, south of Timaru, South Canterbury in 2022."

This research is published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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