Study Reveals Ancient Flightless Birds Helped Spreading Colorful Native Fungi, Highlights Ecological Balance

It is a finding that sounds like something out of a scientific whodunit. Still, it's real: remarkable insights into New Zealand's ancient ecosystem were found through the unlikely hero of fossilized poop. Ancient flightless birds called Moa were crucial in spreading colorful native fungi across the South Pacific island, stated Biology Letters. The research, led by paleoecologist Alexander Boast from Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, hinged on remarkable coprolites—scientific speak for preserved feces—that told an extraordinary story of ecological interconnectedness, as per Smithsonian Magazine. A set of ancient, fossilized dung—an unpolished one that had been stored in a cave and another museum-curated—both contained the DNA of teeming fungal species from a now-lost era in New Zealand's forests.
Boast, A.P. et al. (2024). DNA and spores from coprolites reveal that colourful truffle-like fungi endemic to New Zealand were consumed by extinct moa (Dinornithiformes). Biology Letters. #ornithology #dinosaurs https://t.co/1fagZ5Y5Ge pic.twitter.com/MbrGjSwWmH
— Nicolás Diez (@hegaztidiez) January 16, 2025
The unlikely heroes of this ecological drama turned out to be Moa—large ostrich-like birds that roamed the island before the arrival of humans. These birds, now extinct for about 600 years, seemed to have a particular taste for fungi producing bright blue, pink, and purple fruiting bodies. "Birds have very strong color vision and they will forage predominately by sight," Boast continued to say of the findings but added that perhaps it acted like berries-mimicking berries, as per Smithsonian Magazine.

Fungi themselves aren't as small in size compared, but their influence on the health environment is massive, as these substances are highly important for breaking organic pieces down into being able to uptake the necessary content of trees via complicated interactions with their roots' ends. Without Moa as a means to spread their spores, these native fungal species have to work very hard to maintain any semblance of their historical distribution.
It has been made worse by the introduction of non-native mammals such as possums, deer, and wild pigs. These prefer different types of fungi and may disrupt the balance in New Zealand forests. The colorful, native fungi, which once were evolutionarily perfect for pollination by the Moa, stand-alone today as "ecological anachronisms"—beautiful, haunting relics of lost environmental symbiosis, as per Science. Matthew Smith is a fungal biologist at the University of Florida, who somewhat tempers one's optimism thus: "Fungi are pretty adaptable," he suggests, and it may well turn out that the remarkable organisms we have discussed still find a modus vivendi in a revised ecosystem.
In 1986 a group of archaeologists discovered a claw of a bird while digging down in a cave in New Zealand. The flesh and muscles are still attached to it. Later, archaeologist confirmed that it is a foot of extinct wingless bird moa which disappeared from Earth 2000 years before. pic.twitter.com/inWhdF1tQP
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) November 3, 2021
It provides a window, not only into prehistoric ecological dynamics but also into the interconnectedness of complex environmental systems, a fact underscored poignantly by the notion that the loss of one species can engender cascading effects that resound through whole ecosystems. With global climate change posing continued challenges for biodiversity, this and similar research become increasingly significant. They help us to better understand the complex web that supports life and the possible long-term implications of disrupting the environment. The threads that link Moa and their fungal companions are not simply a matter of scientific curiosity but part of the amazing ways in which life adapts, survives, and finally transforms itself across generations.