The Water-Soluble Organic Matrix in the Egg Shells of the Extinct Moa and the Extant Rhea

Abstract

Moas (Dinornithiformes) were New Zealand’s unique flightless birds which comprise about nineteen species. Most species of moas became extinct between the tenth and seventeenth centuries. A few researchers have analyzed the moa egg shells structurally and histochemically [1–3], but as far as we know, there have been no published details of the chemical analysis of the organic matrix of moa egg shells. The present work was performed to provide information on the chemical nature of the water-soluble organic matrix of moa egg shells and compare them with those from egg shells of the extant south American rhea.