Researchers have encounter that New Zealand ’s current endangered flightless shuttle species are essay resort in the places where six coinage of moa lived before they cash in one’s chips extinct . The answer could have substantial preservation benefits .

Moa ( Dinornithiformes ) are a group of large flightless snort that were once endemical in New Zealand . However , current fossil grounds suggest that the unusual and magnanimous raptors went nonextant within two centuries of thearrival of humansin their environment , about 800 year ago .

According to the unexampled analytic thinking , before the moa conk extinct , they move back to the same frigid , isolated craggy locations where today ’s imperil flightless birds are found , such as Mount Aspiring on the South Island , and the Ruahine Range on the North Island .

“ population of moa are likely to have vanish first from the high quality lowland habitats that Polynesian colonists prefer , with rates of population pass up decreasing with elevation and distance travelled inland , ” lead author Dr Sean Tomlinson said in astatement .

“ By pinpointing the last universe of moa and comparing them with distributions of New Zealand ’s living flightless birds , we base that these last oasis shelter many of today ’s die hard populations of takahē , weka and cracking spotty kiwi ” .

Tomlinson and co-worker achieved this by flux sophisticated computational theoretical account with evidence from the fossil records and paleoclimate information . They also analyze and remodel the movement of world as they get in in New Zealand and expanded outwards .

“ Our inquiry overpower past logistic challenge to trace the universe dynamics of six species of moa at resolutions not considered potential before , ” added aged generator Dr Damien Fordham .

“ Our enquiry shows that despite magnanimous difference of opinion in the ecology , human ecology and timing of extinction of moa species , their distributions collapsed and converged on the same areas on New Zealand ’s North and South Islands . ”

Although the factors that are drive the decline of New Zealand ’s existing native flightless birds are different from those that affect themoa , this research shows that their spatial dynamics are extremely similar .

“ The primal commonness among past and current refugia is not that they are optimal habitats for flightless bird , but that they preserve to be the last and least impacted by humanity , ” fellow source Dr Jamie Wood explicate .

" Like other Wave of Polynesian elaboration , home ground conversion by Europeans across New Zealand , and the spread of the animals they brought , was directional , progressing from lowland sites to the less hospitable , cold , mountainous regions . ”

The research also put up valuable new tools for apprehension past extinctions on these islands where fogy and archeological information is limited , but also demonstrates how even farseeing - nonextant species could offer insights for preservation effort today . Now , more than ever , it is crucial that citizenry in New Zealand – and elsewhere – protect the outback baseless places where peril animals seek refuge .

The study is publish inNature Ecology & Evolution .