Plate Nº 91 · recorded November 9, 2026
Biology & EvolutionReported finding
New megapode found in Liang Bua, the Homo floresiensis cave
Researchers identified a leg bone aged 190,000–120,000 years as Megapodius rokusi, a large extinct ground bird and Wallacea’s first known megapode fossil.
By Marcus Bennett4 min read781 words
In brief
- 190,000–120,000 years: estimated age of the Liang Bua leg bone.
- About 17 years separate the bone’s 2009 recovery from its 2026 identification.
- 3.9 kilograms (8.6 pounds): estimated weight of Megapodius rokusi, the largest Megapodius found.
- 0.5–1.2 kilograms (1–3 pounds): weight range of Flores Island’s living orange-footed scrubfowl.
- First in Wallacea: the fossil is the region’s first known megapode fossil.
By Marcus Bennett
Researchers have identified a leg bone dated to 190,000–120,000 years as Megapodius rokusi, a new extinct, ground-dwelling, chicken-like bird.
It is the largest Megapodius ever found and the first megapode fossil ever recovered in Wallacea, according to a 2026 study in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
What did researchers find?
Researchers working in Liang Bua cave on Flores Island uncovered the leg bone in 2009. They recognized it as a bird bone and set it aside. About 17 years later, Hanneke J. M. Meijer and colleagues reexamined it against living and extinct megapodes, a group of fowl-like birds.
Meijer is a professor and curator of osteology, the study of bones, at the University Museum of Bergen and one of the paper’s authors.
She said: “It is one of the oldest bird remains we have found at Liang Bua … This is a period for which we have almost no data on birds, … so it is exciting that we can pinpoint this species to this period.”
Takeaway: The fossil gives Wallacea its first direct evidence of a megapode.
Why did the bone count as a new species?
The fossil sat unstudied for years until researchers compared its anatomy with that of living and extinct megapodes. Two features stood out:
- Its toe joints differed in shape and position from those of other megapodes.
- Its leg shape and overall size indicated a large bird.
Those differences supported the researchers’ conclusion that the specimen belonged to a distinct species. They named it Megapodius rokusi in honor of Rokus Due Awe.
Due Awe had first recognized the bones of Homo floresiensis and later identified the Liang Bua fossil as a bird bone. A zooarchaeologist, in this case, studies animal remains recovered from archaeological deposits.
Meijer said: “Due Awe was an incredible self-taught zooarchaeologist, and it is an honor to be able to name a species after him.”
The size comparison is striking:
- Around 3.9 kilograms (8.6 pounds): the estimated weight of M. rokusi, making it the largest Megapodius ever found.
- 0.5–1.2 kilograms (1–3 pounds): the weight range of Flores Island’s living orange-footed scrubfowl, which M. rokusi would have dwarfed.
Takeaway: The bone’s unusual joints and estimated mass support the identification of a distinct, larger species.
How did megapodes spread and live?
The study’s authors place the megapodes’ split from other fowl-like birds in the Late Cretaceous, an ancient period of Earth history. They suggest that the group first emerged in Australasia, then spread across eastern Indonesia, Melanesia, the Philippines and Australia, where megapodes live today.
Rather than sit on their nests, megapodes lay their eggs in large mounds or burrows and leave them without returning. Despite this long and diverse history, no megapode fossil had ever surfaced in Wallacea before the Liang Bua specimen.
Takeaway: The fossil shows that megapodes were present in Wallacea long before modern researchers recognized their remains there.
What can one fossil still tell us?
The bone came from one of Liang Bua’s deepest layers. The same cave on Flores Island yielded the ancient remains of Homo floresiensis.
Because the specimen contains only a leg, researchers cannot determine whether M. rokusi could fly. Nor can one fossil pin down when the species disappeared.
The study offers two possible extinction scenarios. The bird may have vanished around the same time as several other extinct animals associated with Liang Bua, including:
- The giant stork
- The dwarf Stegodon
- Homo floresiensis
- Vultures
Alternatively, M. rokusi may have disappeared much earlier.
Meijer places the discovery in a broader conservation context. Southeast Asia is considered a biodiversity hotspot, an area with unusually high species diversity, but the wildlife seen today represents only a remnant of what once existed.
Takeaway: The leg bone establishes the bird’s presence, but it cannot resolve its flight or the timing of its extinction.
What could the next fossil reveal?
Meijer doubts that the Liang Bua specimen is Wallacea’s only megapode fossil. She expects additional specimens may have escaped notice because bird fossils have long been overlooked in favor of mammal bones. She wants to examine more material to find them.
Hanneke J. M. Meijer and colleagues published “A new species of megapode (Galliformes: Megapodiidae) from the Pleistocene of Liang Bua, Flores” in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology in 2026. The DOI is 10.1080/03115518.2026.2741158. Galliformes denotes the fowl-like birds, Megapodiidae the megapode family, and the Pleistocene an earlier geological epoch.
Takeaway: One overlooked bone has opened Wallacea’s missing megapode chapter; finding the next specimen could make the bird’s history much clearer.
via phys.org/rss-feed/ (Source)
More from Marcus Bennett
Show full bio
News editor covering regulation, policy and their impact on general science news at SciBeat.
370 articles
Nearby plates
- Jurassic Bird from China Was a Flightless Killer With Sickle Claws
- Forgotten Museum Fossil Reveals New European Clawed Dinosaur
- Half-meter Jurassic predator rewrites mammal feeding origins
- 150-million-year-old bird points to earliest known flight loss
- 240-Million-Year-Old Tanzania Fossil Reshapes Dinosaur Timeline