Our research community tonight gathers in Wellington for a gala dinner celebrating 150 years of our leading body for science and the humanities, the Royal Society Te Aparangi. Science reporter Jamie Morton looks at 10 highlights in its history.

1874: The cave controversy

Who hunted the moa to extinction proved a heated dispute between two scientific heavyweights.

A cave just outside Christchurch proved the centre of one of the biggest academic stoushes in New Zealand’s history – and pitted two scientific heavyweights against each other.