A team of researchers from the University of Adelaide, University of Otago and the New Zealand Department of Conservation has used fossilized feces of extinct giant birds to gather details about their prehistoric ecosystem.Technically known as coprolites, more than 1500 samples of the fossilized feces were collected across New Zealand, mostly from four different extinct moa species, a giant flightless bird similar to the modern emu. DNA analysis was performed on the coprolite samples, some up to 15 centimeters in length, and details were extracted from of leaf fragments and plant seeds that made up the moa's diet and the environment in which it lived.
More than half the plants found in the moa's diets were under 30 centimeters tall, suggesting the moa were low grazers instead of feeding on tall trees and shrubs as previously believed. Birds play a role in ecosystem development by spreading undigested plant seeds in their feces. Many of the plant species identified in the moa's feces are now either threatened or rare, suggesting that the extinction of this bird impacted the ability for these plants to disperse and reproduce.
New Zealand presents an idea case for a study like this because elsewhere the now-extinct species disappeared too long ago. The moa are believed to have been hunted to extinction as recently as 1500 AD by the native Maori tribes.
These findings were published in a recent edition of Quaternary Science Reviews (no website).
Photo: ScienceDaily
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