Moas wiped out before man?

Permalink: Moas wiped out before man?

An interesting study by researchers at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and the US Forest Service in Missoula, Montana, suggest that humans may not actually have been primarily responsible for the extinction of the Moa bird populations in New Zealand (Aotorea).

Skeletal remains and other clues had previously put the moa population in New Zealand at around 159,000 at the time humans arrived, one thousand years ago. However, after mitochondrial analysis of more than 58 Dinornis remains:

By taking into account other factors that influence genetic variation, such as estimates of the rate at which moa DNA mutates, the Gemmell team calculated that between 300 000 and 1.4 million Dinornis lived in New Zealand between one and six thousand years ago.

From fossil evidence indicating what proportion of the moa population is of the species Dinornis, the researchers obtained an estimate of between 3 and 12 million for all moa species.

That means that if the contentious estimations hold true over a sustained period, then we’re looking at a major crash in Moa populations before humans finally landed and finished them off.

Although the researchers try to suggest disease, it’s hard not to consider an environmental role somewhere.