Ananova:

Researchers in New Zealand have been given NZ$450,000 (£130,000) to "torture" dozens of native shrubs to simulate attacks by extinct giant birds.

The team will trim the plants' branches before exposing them to frost in a bid to prove their tangled branches didn't evolve to deter hungry moa birds.

New Zealand has more small-leaved, tangled shrubs than anywhere else in the world. Some experts think they were harder for the extinct giant birds to eat.

Canterbury University ecologist Dave Kelly plans to simulate a moa attack by cutting off branches the night before a heavy frost.

He told The Press newspaper: "We are predicting that most of them should suffer a lot more damage than your average plant would."