Moa bones recovered

Press, 17 August 1983, Page 9

Moa bones recovered

PA z Palmerston North

The bones of six moas and a rare, nearly flightless duck have been recovered from a limestone cave in the Puketoi ranges above Makuri, near Pahiatua.

They were dug from the mud, in which they lay for probably 1000 years, under the direction of the Manawatu Museum curator, Mr Richard Cassels, on Saturday. “It’s an exciting find because the bones represent four of the eight or nine species of moa that lived in the North Island,” Mr Cassels has said. “There is also a nearly complete skeleton of a Finsch’s duck which has been extinct for 600 years,” he said. Mr Cassels believes Xhat amixig the bones, Slow

slowly drying out at the Manawatu Museum in Palmerston North, is the complete skeleton of a small moa, the Anomalapteryx. The bones include the skull, preserved in the high humidity of the small limestone chamber. A second skull was also found. “Usually they are broken, or disintegrate,” said Mr Cassels, an acknowledged expert on the moa. “I believe we might also have the skeleton of a kakapo, a native parrot,” he said, describing the haul as “a good collection.” Saturday’s expedition was mounted after cavers squeezed through a narrow gap into the tiny chamber in May. The bones were found by members of the Manawatu Speleological