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This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 3 February 2025. Extinct order of birds This article is about the extinct New Zealand birds known as moa. For other uses, see Moa (disambiguation). Moa Temporal range: Miocene – Holocene, 17–0.0006 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N North Island giant moa skeleton Scientific classification Domain ...
Human colonists (specifically the Māori, who called them "moa mōmona") [1] hunted Emeus into extinction with relative ease. E. crassus was the second most common species found at the Wairau Bar site in Marlborough, where more than 4000 moa were eaten. The species had gone extinct by about 1400. [6]
It was the smallest known species of moa, [5] only slightly taller than a turkey (approx. 1.3 metres (51 in) tall). A slender bird, it weighed around 30 kilograms (66 lb). [6] As with all moa, they have a sternum but no keel. They also have a distinctive palate. [7]
The South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) is an extinct species of moa in the genus Dinornis, known in Māori by the name moa nunui. [2] It was one of the tallest-known bird species to walk the Earth, exceeded in weight only by the heavier but shorter elephant bird of Madagascar (also extinct).
The crested moa (Pachyornis australis) is an extinct species of moa. It is one of the 9 known species of moa to have existed. [3] Moa are grouped together with emus, ostriches, kiwi, cassowaries, rheas, and tinamous in the clade Palaeognathae. Some of the species of this group are flightless and lacks a keel on their sternum. [4]
New Zealand had more species of flightless birds (including the kiwi, several species of penguins, the takahē, the weka, the moa, and several other extinct species) than any other such location. One reason is that until the arrival of humans roughly a thousand years ago, there were no large mammalian land predators in New Zealand; the main ...
A 2009 genetic study showed that Euryapteryx curtus and Euryapteryx gravis were synonyms. [7] A 2010 study explained size differences among them as sexual dimorphism. [8] A 2012 morphological study interpreted them as subspecies instead. [9] E. c. curtus, the nominate subspecies, was labeled the "coastal moa", [1] while E. c. gravis was the ...
This moa usually laid only 1 to 2 blue-green coloured eggs at once, [10] [22] and was likely the only type of moa to lay eggs that were not white in colour. [23] Like the emu and ostrich, male moa cared for the young. [9] The upland moa's only predator before the arrival of humans in New Zealand was the Haast's eagle (Hieraaetus moorei). [10]