A rare South Island moa egg that turned up at an auction in the United States is to be returned to New Zealand, RNZ reports.
De-extinction company Colossal Biosciences, which counts Sir Peter Jackson among its backers, paid US$10,500 (roughly NZ$18,500) for the egg in June and announced its return to Ngāi Tahu research leaders in Christchurch on Monday. Auction records suggest it came from a burial site from around AD 1300 and was found in 1966. It spent about six decades in a private American collection.
Fewer than 37 largely intact moa eggs are known. The egg, about 22cm by 17cm and still being pieced together, is due back by December. It left New Zealand before a 1975 law restricting the export of such objects.
Source: RNZ
