Moa Footprint Research

In 2019, a series of footprints was found in the Kyeburn River. Tūhura Otago Museum undertook a joint research project with Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki; Ōtākou Rūnaka; the Department of Geology at the University of Otago; the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington; Aukaha; and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

The project involved diverting the river and excavating the footprints from the bottom of the riverbed. Once returned to the Museum, the footprints were slowly dried to ensure the best long-term preservation of the surrounding clay matrix.

The research and identification phase involved dating the sediment layers above the footprints. Cosmogenic nuclide dating provided a mean minimum age of 3.6 million years. The moa that left the seven footprints at Kyeburn was likely a relative of the heavy-footed moa (genus Pachyornis), would have weighed approximately 86 kilograms, and was moving at a speed of 2.6 kilometres per hour.

An additional, larger footprint was found in the very top layer of the trackway. Although it was only preserved in imagery, it revealed a giant moa with an estimated mass of 158 kilograms—providing the first evidence that moa had already reached such massive sizes by this point in time.

The published research article can be found here:

Since this discovery, several other moa footprints have been found around Aotearoa New Zealand, including a set of 13 in Kaipara. Our staff helped with the research of the Kaipara finds alongside Ricky-Lee Erickson (Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira), Daniel B. Thomas (University of Auckland, Massey University), Malcolm Paterson (Ngā Maunga Whakahī o Kaipara Ngahere Ltd.) and Bruce W. Hayward (Geomarine Research).

Further reading: