Geoscience communicator Julian Thomson with some of the moa footprints he and Dr Bruce Hayward discovered at Kaipara's South Head. Photo / YouTube
By RNZ
Thirteen large moa footprints have been discovered in a remote part of Auckland.
The find, near the Kaipara Peninsula’s South Head, was only the 14th recorded discovery of moa footprints in 150 years.
Geoscience communicator Julian Thomson and geologist Dr Bruce Hayward were in the area making a video about four other moa footprints, discovered nearby in 2022, when they came across the fossils.
“Fossilised moa footprints are extremely rare,” Hayward said.
Of the recorded finds, these were the second oldest occurrence, at about one million years old, he said.
“The large number of footprints on one surface is highly unusual.”
Most other recorded moa footprints were preserved in mud or volcanic ash in stream valleys, Hayward said, but these footprints were left in wet sand at the top of a beach.
“Their crisp form was captured by dry sand blowing across them and filling them up and further beach sand and dunes deeply burying them.
“They have remained buried until recent sea erosion has exposed them. They are captured in soft sandstone which is now rapidly frittering away.”
Thomson said it was “so lucky” that the pair were able to capture the footprints on video.
“They will not last long and at least we now have a record for the future.”
On the pair’s second visit to the location, paleontologist Dr Daniel Thomas, a specialist in fossil birds, took measurements and images to make a 3D model of the site before it succumbed to further erosion.
His work would allow for a detailed study of the moa’s size, weight and behaviour, Thomson and Hayward said.
The video the pair were originally making, about the four other moa footprints, would be added to their Out There Learning YouTube channel, which highlights Aotearoa’s geology and landforms
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