A Rare Find Of A Claw From An Animal That Went Extinct 700 Years Ago Sparked An Online Debate About If 2020 Is The Right Year To Try Cloning It
The claw is 3,300 years old, preserved almost perfectly with flesh and muscle.
Humans are convinced that we know a lot, that science has explained everything, and that there are no more secrets. Occasionally, some rare find shows us that we are only beginning to discover our planet’s secrets.
Even if the discovery is not new and has been known for quite some time, new techniques enable us to examine and utilize it in many different ways.
About 30 years ago, a team of scientists investigated a system of caves in Mount Owen, New Zealand. On that expedition, they found something incredible – a perfectly preserved claw that looked like it belonged to a dinosaur.
The best part was – it had muscles and flesh attached to it.
Here is the famous claw:
Wikimedia CommonsIt was discovered that this 3,300-year-old enigmatic claw belonged to a moa bird, which vanished from the Earth around 700 to 800 years ago.
The bird in question probably looked like this:
Wikimedia CommonsMoa first appeared around 8.5 million years ago. Scientists claim there were at least ten varieties of moa. The two largest types reached about 12 feet when their necks were stretched, while the smallest type was about the size of a turkey.
This picture shows a comparison between moa species and a human.
Wikimedia Commons
These birds lived in New Zealand.
Wikimedia Commons
Scientists have been trying to determine why these birds became extinct. Moa birds vanished from our planet about 700 years ago, shortly after humans arrived on the islands of New Zealand. Knowing humans, that can’t be a coincidence.
Wikimedia Commons
Trevor Worthy, an evolutionary biologist, says: “The inescapable conclusion is that these birds were not senescent, not in the old age of their lineage and about to exit from the world. Rather, they were robust, healthy populations when humans encountered and terminated them.”
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
And here is what the internet community has to say about this discovery:
