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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).
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
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.