DNA analysis reveals the big, flightless moa birds ate — and pooped out — 13 kinds of fungi, including ones crucial for New Zealand’s forest ecosystem.

Scientists can learn a lot about extinct animals by studying their footprints, bones and even teeth. But, while insightful, these artifacts don’t always paint a complete picture of an ancient creature ...

Up until now, no evidence of the extinct birds eating the truffles had been found. The evidence for moa truffle consumption came courtesy of a fossilized ball of poop (coprolite) found in a cave ...

Study Reveals Ancient Flightless Birds Helped Spreading Colorful Native Fungi, Highlights Ecological Balance It is a finding ...

Boast and a team of researchers, for example, are using fossilized dung to learn more about the diets of extinct flightless birds called moa that once roamed around New Zealand. Coprolites helped ...

There are believed to be at least nine species of moa, ranging from small birds under 50kg to large ones over 3m tall and 250kg. These flightless, herbivorous manu went extinct about 600 years ago.

Owen's statue at the Museum shows him holding the moa bone fragment, and one of the elephant bird eggs is on display in the Bird Gallery. The collection also contains older fossil bird specimens from ...

The moa-nalo are among 77 species of Hawaiian birds that have become extinct in the last 700 years, thanks to invasive species, disease and habitat loss. There are still rare and unique bird ...