From Moa to Dinosaurs. Explore & discover ancient New Zealand by Gillian Candler & Ned Barraud
From Moa to Dinosaurs. Explore & discover ancient New Zealand by Gillian Candler & Ned Barraud. Pub. Potton & Burton, 2016.
This is the sort of priceless non fiction book that cannot be bettered by any one web site. It is altogether in one superb reference book brilliantly illustrated by Ned Barraud.
Gillian Candler’s simple and authoritative written text is accessible to children of all ages. It is the 5th outing by these experience writers, their other titles are at the link at the bottom of this review.
The book starts 180 Million years ago when new Zealand was part of the great southern land of Gondwana. Over millions of years it split off with Australia then discarded the Aussies to form the undersea continent of Zealandia and finally to the islands we have today.
New Zealand was largely a land of ancient forests populated by birds when the Maori first came. We had nine species of Moa with the females almost twice as big as the males. Moas were hunted by the largest eagle ever, the Haast eagle and we know this because of talon scratches on old moa bones.
NZ once had a fresh water crocodilian of up to 3 metres in length evidence of which is in the ancient Central Otago lake Manuherikia. Not a lot of people know that.
All the evidence for the facts provided are explained in a little box within the illustrations and text titled How Do we Know? There is no doubt about it.
This is a beautiful publication for everyone and essential for every school library.
Create Readers at NLNZ
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