Australia - Species Extinction

Bones of the North Island giant moa at the <a href="https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/" target="_blank" Auckland War Memorial Museum. (© Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

2024-06-01 Doreen Fräßdorf

North Island Giant Moa

The second largest moa species This moa species inhabited bush, grass, and dune lands, as well as forests on New Zealand’s North Island. The North Island giant moa is considered the second largest moa species. The largest species is the South Island giant moa, which was endemic to New Zealand’s

The bush moa is the smallest moa species known to date. It was only slightly larger than today's turkeys and reached a weight of around 30 kilograms. The flightless bird died out around 500 to 600 years ago with the colonisation of New Zealand. (© Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

2024-05-30 Doreen Fräßdorf

Deciphered Bush Moa genome provides insights into New Zealand’s extinct avian world

A team of evolutionary biologists has reconstructed the nearly complete genome of the bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis), a flightless bird from New Zealand that went extinct 500 to 600 years ago. Researchers from Harvard University, East Carolina University, Osaka University, and the University of Toronto sequenced ancient DNA from a

Replica of the Gigarcanum or Kawekaweau gecko from the Lille Natural History Museum in France. (© Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Lille, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

2024-05-30 Doreen Fräßdorf

Gigarcanum (Giant Gecko)

The largest gecko in the world… In the early 1980s, French museum employee Alain Delcourt discovered a forgotten specimen of a single stuffed giant gecko in the basement of the Natural History Museum of Marseille, which had previously been on public display for years. This species was previously unknown to