The first masses to land on the shores of New Zealand , which had been set apart from the rest of the world for ten of millions of years , would have trip upon another world . Rather than mammals being on top , they would have found birds dominating , including the massive moa and giant eagles . It now seems that they would have come expression to face withmega - swan , too .
raw inquiry may havefinally settled the debateabout whether or not the southerly land was once populate by huge swan . Moriori legends tell of a monster swan - similar wight , call the Poūwa ( Cygnus sumnerensis ) , that used to totter through the forests . Many assumed that these fib are just exaggerations of the Australian black swan ( Cygnus atratus ) , which are roll in the hay to cross the Tasman Sea .
A study published inProceedings of the Royal Society Bhas now conducted a genetic analysis on both the modern Australian disastrous swans and the ancient swan fossil from the Chatham Islands off the New Zealand coast . The team found that the ancient bird was really discrete enough to be deal a separate specie , and that perhaps the legends of the native Moriori were indeed accurate after all .
The fossil castanets of the new described Poūwa propose it rive from its Australian full cousin around 2 million old age ago and pass away on a itinerary of not only giantism , but also its first step towards flightlessness . The reconstructed skeletons of the now - out birds suggest it was around 20 percent heavy than the modern living coinage .
“ One of the interesting finding comes from the highly elongated leg bones , which shows they were already on the way towards flightlessness , ” says Dr Nic Rawlence , who lead the research , in astatement . “ wench seem to get these elongated peg in island ecosystem where there are no mammalian predators and the top predators are birds , like the extinct Haast ’s Eagle and Eyles ’ Harrier . ”
When Europeans first arrived in New Zealand , all they found were the remains of swan in the rubbish piles of Māori settlements . They assume that these were the Australian variety and reintroduced the birds back in the late 1800s . It is now much more potential that these rest once belonged to the Poūwa .
It is now thought that human beings most likely drive the mega - swans extinct , as they did the moa , which means the recent reintroduction of the Australian form are technically an invasive specie .
So if you notice modern swans slightly terrifying , just be grateful you were n’t some of the first Māori follow nerve to face with their giant brethren .
