MOA FOOTPRINTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 69, 23 March 1939, Page 9

MOA FOOTPRINTS

REPORTED DISCOVERY MOUTH OF RANGITIKEI RIVER Moa footprints are decidedly more rare than moa bones, and the Dominion Museum authorities in Wellington took notice when it was reported to them last week that footprints of New Zealand's historic bird were to be seen in papa strata laid bare by erosion of the Rangitikei River at Tangimoana. Residents of the seaside resort have known of the footprints for many years, as many as 60, according to Mr. J. H. Stevens, of Palmerston North, they have never been recorded officially. Added interest lies in the fact that they have been discovered only in one or two places in New Zealand and the reason is that footprints are very easily destroyed or obliterated. Dr. W. R. B. Oliver, director of the museum in Wellington, made a special visit to the locality on Sunday, accompanied by Mr. C. Lindsay, taxidermist at the institution. Both authorities were amazed that the footprints could have been preserved for so long a time —at least a couple of centuries. It was generally agreed that what had happened was that the birds had walk- 1 ed over a deposit of papa silt freshly laid by a flood and that immediately , afterwards a heavy wind had covered I the papa with sand and so preserved ; the deep impressions of the foot. Now j the tides in the river have washed away the sand to the papa, leaving . the prints once again exposed: