| Brief Description |
Two femurs or thigh bones, the strongest bones in a bird’s body. A moa’s femur and knee were held almost horizontally, concealed by body feathers. These two bones are wired together and labelled as one, suggesting they were dredged from the mudhole at Makirikiri together and are from the same bird. A handwritten label, "parvus", refers to Dinornis parvus (Owen 1883), an older name for this species.
The Bush Moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis) was a common inhabitant of wetter New Zealand forest, and the most widespread moa species. It was just over 1 m high at the shoulder, with females somewhat bigger than males. Its sharp-edged beak and the number of gizzard stones found with skeletons suggest it ate fibrous plant material. Like all moa species, the Bush Moa was wiped out by human hunting about 500 years ago.
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