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Story: Fossils

Richard Owen and moa

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Richard Owen and moa

Richard Owen, an English scientist, was the first to identify bones found in New Zealand as those of a large bird, the moa. In his right hand he holds the first bone fragment sent to him in London in 1839, which he identified as coming from a giant bird. He is standing beside a reconstructed skeleton of the largest moa species (Dinornis giganteus).

Using this item

National Library of New Zealand, General Lending Collection

Reference: Richard Owen, Memoirs on the extinct wingless birds of New Zealand. Vol 2. London: John Van Voorst, 1879, plate XCVII

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Hamish Campbell, Fossils – Bird fossils, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/9046/richard-owen-and-moa (accessed 5 June 2026).

Story by Hamish Campbell, published 2 March 2009.