DNA analysis reveals the big, flightless moa birds ate — and pooped out — 13 kinds of fungi, including ones crucial for New Zealand’s forest ecosystem.

Up until now, no evidence of the extinct birds eating the truffles had been found. The evidence for moa truffle consumption came courtesy of a fossilized ball of poop (coprolite) found in a cave ...

The vividly colorful fruiting bodies of native fungal species, including Gallacea scleroderma, may have looked appetizing to extinct flightless birds called moa. Joseph Pallante Now, however ...