Lukas VFN 🇪🇺<p>Extinct <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/moa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>moa</span></a> consumed colorful truffle-like <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/fungi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fungi</span></a> in New Zealand <a href="https://phys.org/news/2025-01-dna-extinct-moa-consumed-truffle.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">phys.org/news/2025-01-dna-exti</span><span class="invisible">nct-moa-consumed-truffle.html</span></a> paper: <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0440" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">royalsocietypublishing.org/doi</span><span class="invisible">/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0440</span></a> </p><p>"In other places, <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/truffle" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>truffle</span></a> spores are dispersed by <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/mammals" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>mammals</span></a> such as squirrels. <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/NewZealand" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewZealand</span></a> does not have such mammals; the <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/truffles" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>truffles</span></a> there have traditionally relied on <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/birds" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>birds</span></a> to serve as a disperser. But because truffles grow underground, birds need to be large in order to dig them up—moa would have made perfect dispersers"</p>