# photo | In New Zealand, found traces of an ancient giant bird without wings

Planet Earth is like a huge ball withmany secrets and surprises, because it is difficult to imagine how many more ancient structures and animal remains to be discovered by scientists. Some finds are made even by ordinary people - recently a New Zealand resident strolled along his dogs along the Kiburn River, and noticed on its bottom huge traces of some kind of bird. The man immediately contacted the Otago Museum, whose staff carefully pulled the casts to the surface and told about the ancient bird to which they belong.

For starters, you should talk about the method itself.extracting the footprints of a huge bird. They were at a certain depth, so the arriving researchers had to dive under water with a breathing tube and flippers. After examining them, the museum staff cordoned off the river and dried the desired area to pull part of the bottom to the surface without damaging the imprint structure.

I went out with my pipe and maskwetsuit, dived into the water and looked at the prints - they were just stunning. They are much better than in the photos, and this is a super special find, ”said museum employee Kane Fleury.

The experts quickly recognized the marks - theybelong to one of the specimens of the moa bird that lived in New Zealand until about the 1500s. The height of some representatives of this species reached 3.6 meters, and the weight reached 250 kilograms. They ate vegetation, and were considered great prey for the Maori aborigines, who destroyed them. It is believed that due to the abundance of people and predators, the birds were doomed to extinction.

Representatives of the museum stressed that this is the firstMoa bird tracks found on the South Island of New Zealand. In the Northern part, traces were found earlier as well - a total of at least ten of them were registered. New tracks were sent for storage at the Otago Museum - they will soon be on display.

Recall that recently scientists have found anotherone historical thing - the burial of two high-ranking people from ancient Egypt was discovered at the pyramids of Giza. You can read about the sarcophagus found and their owners in our material.

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