{"id":2859,"date":"2021-05-24T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T23:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:24:16","slug":"moa-remnant-found-in-hawkes-bay-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/moa-remnant-found-in-hawkes-bay-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"Moa remnant found in Hawke\u2019s Bay forest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taonga left in place<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moa bone believed to be about 700 years old, found under a rock overhang in the bush of inland Hawke\u2019s Bay, has sparked the interest of tangata whenua and naturalists. The taonga was discovered by Pete Shaw, manager of the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust, on its property in the Maungataniwha Native Forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts have identified the bone as a moa femur, most likely from a little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis<\/em>) based on how slender it is. NZ Birds Online describes this moa species as \u201cthe smallest and most widespread… occurring in forest throughout the North and South Islands. Slender with relatively long legs, it inhabited dense forest and shrubland. (It) was turkey-sized, lightly-built, with a rounded head, a short, stubby, rounded bill, and relatively slender legs. Its legs were bare and scaly, and it had shaggy hair-like body feathers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bird it came from probably weighed in the region of 35kg and was about one metre tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No other moa bones have been found at Maungataniwha although Mr Shaw has previously found other moa bones in a bush setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bush is not a good place for the preservation of bones as rain and stream water is slightly acidic so they will only be preserved if they are in a relatively dry site,\u201d Mr Shaw said. He was not prepared to speculate on why he had found only a single bone resting on a moss-covered rock beneath an overhang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bone has been properly analysed and recorded but it has not been formally dated and has been left in situ. It was formally blessed by a contingent from Ngati Pahauwera, led by kaumatua and Ngati Pahauwera Trust Chairman Toro Waaka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trust\u2019s property at Maungataniwha is of national importance geologically. It is where renowned palaeontologist Joan Wiffen first discovered evidence of land-dinosaur fossils in New Zealand. These fossil remains were extracted from cretaceous rock taken from the Mangahouanga Stream, which has the bulk of its catchment within this forest. \u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf any one place is the epicentre of New Zealand palaeontology, Maungataniwha is probably it,\u201d Mr Shaw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maungataniwha continues to reveal a trove of fossilised riches; in June 2014 walkers stumbled across the fossil of an unusually large ammonite, a squid-like animal that lived in the sea during the time of the dinosaurs. And in March 2015 Mr Shaw discovered the fossilised jaw of a mosasaur<\/a>, a large marine reptile that was the dominant marine predator during the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period. The jaw contained the largest mosasaur tooth on record in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019 Mr Shaw was recognised by the Geoscience Society of New Zealand<\/a> for his work on fossils in the Maungataniwha Native Forest. He was awarded the Harold Wellman Prize for the discovery of important fossil material in New Zealand, including the largest mosasaur jaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taonga left in place A moa bone believed to be about 700 years old, found under a rock overhang in the bush of inland Hawke\u2019s Bay, has sparked the interest of tangata whenua and naturalists. The taonga was discovered by Pete Shaw, manager of the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust, on its property in the Maungataniwha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2864,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions\/2864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}