MOA'S FOOTPRINTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23302, 22 March 1939, Page 15

MOA'S FOOTPRINTS

DISCOVERY IN MANAWATU PRESERVED IN PAPA STRATA EXAMINATION BY AUTHORITIES [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] PALMERSTON NORTH, Tuesday The footprints of a moa seen in papa strata laid bare by the erosion of the Rangitikei River at Tangimoana have been examined by the Dominion Museum authorities. Residents "of this seaside resort have known of the footprints for at least 60 years, according to Mr. J. H. Stevens, of Palmerston North, but they have never been recorded officially. Added interest lies in the fact that moa footprints have been discovered only in one or two places in New Zealand, as they are very easily destroyed or obliterated.

Learning from Mr. Lindsay Durrant, of Palmerston North, that additional Srints had been found at Tangimoana, Ir. A. G. Roe wrote to Dr. W. R. B. Oliver, director of the museum, with the result that he made a special visit to the locality, accompanied by Mr. C. Lindsay, taxidermist at the museum. Both were amazed that the footprints could have been preserved for at least 200 years. It was generally agreed that the birds had walked over a deposit of silt freshly laid by a flood, and that immediately afterward a heavy wind had covered the papa with sand, and so preserved deep impressions of the foot. Now the tides in the river have washed away the land to the papa, leaving the prints once again exposed. Dr. Oliver explained that the problem of the moa was very far from being cleared up. He was in search of a very little bit of evidence that would help liiin to discover how many varieties of the bird there lnid been, but this was hardly likely to eventuate until complete single skeletons were unearthed. In the past, even in the reconstruction of skeletons for museums, varieties had been very much mixed up. For instance, one skeleton for the museum had been built up with 33 vertebrae, whereas it was recognised now that there should be only 27, added Dr. Oliver. There was only one known skeleton of one particular varietv of moa.

Dr. Oliver has arranged for the best of further impressions that may be discovered to be dug up and forwarded to him in Wellington.