Birds
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Birds are warm-blooded vertebrates with bodies covered in feathers made of keratin, and forelimbs modified into wings. Other characteristics of birds include feet covered in scales, vestigial claws on wing tips, a bill covered in keratin, and an oil gland for dressing the plumage.
The museum collection includes an emperor penguin collected during Scott’s Arctic expedition (1901-1904) which greets visitors at the entrance to the Alfred Denny building; a 3-metre tall ostrich skeleton; and a life-sized model of an elephant bird’s egg. Extinct since the 17th century, the elephant bird, along with its close cousin, the Moa, is the largest bird to have ever roamed the earth, and produced eggs that were 160 times larger than a chicken egg. |
