Evaluation of southern Hawkes Bay coast intertidal data II: the use of presence/absence data
- Author
- Haddon, Malcolm
- Year
- 1994
- Keywords
- moa, Emeidae, Dmornithidae, eggshell, fossil, Holocene, thickness, curvature, egg size
- Summary
- Moa eggshell fragments were examined from Late Holocene coastal dunes at Tokerau Beach and Matai Bay, Kankan Peninsula, Northland The Tokerau eggshell fragments, 0 56-1 69 mm thick, were produced by up to six species of moas recorded from the area A sample of 1042 fragments was bimodally distributed by thickness, with 19% of fragments classed as "thick" ( 1 12 mm thick) and 81% as "thin" ( 1 10 mm) The thin eggshells were probably produced mainly by the small moa Euryapteryx curtus, which dominates local bone assemblages The small Pachyorms mappim, rare in local bone assemblages, may have produced some of the thin eggshells Thick eggshell could have been produced by E geranoides or one or more of the three species of Dinornis In a sample of 51 eggshell fragments from Matai Bay, all except one fragment were thin Thickness distributions of thin shell from Matai Bay and Tokerau Beach differed, but the Matai Bay sample may have been too small for reliability Measurements of the curvature of 237 larger fragments from Tokerau Beach suggested that thick eggshell belonged to eggs 161-216 mm long by 116-155 mm wide, while thin eggshell was associated with eggs 138-1 79 mm