Brief Description |
A tibiotarsus or shin bone, the largest bone in a moa’s body. Made up of a fused tibia and foot bones, it was partly feathered and flexed mostly at the ankle. Collected by Taylor Brown from a tomo or sinkhole on Motukawa Land Co Ltd farm, Moawhango Valley Road near Taihape in December 2000, and donated by landowner Warren Plimmer.
Mantell’s Moa (Pachyornis geranoides) was one of the smallest moa species, just 1 m high at the shoulder and weighing 20 to 30 kg. It preferred to live around the edges of swamps and forests. Like all moa species, it was wiped out by human hunting about 500 years ago.
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