Broad-billed moa

The broad-billed, stout-legged moa[3] or coastal moa (Euryapteryx curtus) is an extinct species of moa. These moa lived in both the North and the South Islands of New Zealand, and on Stewart Island. Its habitat was in the lowlands (duneland, forest, shrubland, and grassland).[4] It was a ratite and a member of the Struthioniformes Order. The Struthioniformes are flightless birds with a sternum without a keel. They also have a distinctive palate. The origin of these birds is becoming clearer as it is now believed that early ancestors of these birds were able to fly and flew to the southern areas that they have been found in.[4]

Broad-billed moa Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
Restoration
Conservation status
Extinct
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	†Dinornithiformes
Family:	†Emeidae
Genus:	†Euryapteryx Haast, 1874
Species:	†E. curtus
Binomial name
†Euryapteryx curtus (Owen, 1846)[1][2]
Synonyms
List Cela Reichenbach 1853 non Moehring 1758 Celeus Bonaparte 1856 non Boie 1831 Zelornis Oliver 1949 Dinornis curtus Owen, 1846 Cela curtus (Owen 1846) Reichenbach, 1850 Celeus curtus (Owen 1846) Bonaparte, 1865 Anomalopteryx curta (Owen 1846) Lydekker 1891 Euryapteryx curtus (Owen 1846) Archey 1941 Mesopteryx species α Parker 1895 Euryapteryx exilis Hutton, 1897 Zelornis exilis (Hutton 1897) Oliver 1949 Euryapteryx tane Oliver 1949 Dinornis gravis Owen, 1870 Pachyornis gravis (Owen 1870) Euryapteryx pygmaeus Hutton 1891 non Pachyornis pygmaeus Hutton 1895 Emeus gravipes Lydekker, 1891 Euryapteryx gravipes (Lydekker 1891) Oliver 1930 Euryapteryx compacta Hutton 1893 Emeus crassus Parker 1895 non (Owen 1846) Reichenbach 1853 Euryapteryx ponderosa Hamilton 1898 non Hutton 1891 Emeus boothi Rothschild 1907 Emeus haasti Rothschild 1907 non Palaeocasuarius haasti Rothschild 1907 Zelornis haasti (Rothschild 1907) Oliver 1949 Euryapteryx haasti (Rothschild 1907) Emeus parkeri Rothschild 1907 Euryapteryx kuranui Oliver 1930 Euryapteryx geranoides Checklist Committee 1990 non Palapteryx geranoides

Taxonomy

A 2009 genetic study showed that Euryapteryx curtus and Euryapteryx gravis were synonyms.[5] A 2010 study explained size differences among them as sexual dimorphism.[6] A 2012 morphological study interpreted them as subspecies instead.[7]

The cladogram below follows a 2009 analysis by Bunce et al.:[5]

	Dinornithidae   Dinornis robustus     Dinornis novaezealandiae     Megalapteryidae   Megalapteryx didinus
Emeidae	Pachyornis australis       Pachyornis elephantopus     Pachyornis geranoides                 Anomalopteryx didiformis       Emeus crassus     Euryapteryx curtus

• 
  Skull

Footnotes

1. Owen 1846
2. Checklist Committee Ornithological Society of New Zealand (2010). "Checklist-of-Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands and the Ross Dependency Antarctica" (PDF). Te Papa Press. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
3. http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/stout-legged-moa
4. Davies 2003, pp. 95–98
5. Bunce et al. 2009.
6. Gill 2010
7. Worthy & Scofield 2012, p. 87.

References

• Bunce, Michael; Worthy, Trevor H.; Phillips, Matthew J.; Holdaway, Richard N.; Willerslev, Eske; Haile, James; Shapiro, Beth; Scofield, R. Paul; Drummond, Alexei; Kamp, Peter J. J.; Cooper, Alan (8 December 2009). "The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (49): 20646–20651. doi:10.1073/pnas.0906660106. PMC 2791642. PMID 19923428.
• Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003). "Moas". In Hutchins, Michael (ed.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. 8: Birds I: Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. ISBN 0-7876-5784-0.
• Gill, B. J. (2010). "Regional comparisons of the thickness of moa eggshell fragments (Aves: Dinornithiformes)". Records of the Australian Museum. 62: 115–122. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.62.2010.1535.
• Owen, R. (1846). A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds. London, UK: John Van Voorst.
• Worthy, T. H.; Scofield, R. P. (2012). "Twenty-first century advances in knowledge of the biology of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes): a new morphological analysis and moa diagnoses revised". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 39 (2): 87–153. doi:10.1080/03014223.2012.665060.

External links

• Unmasking the secrets of the extinct moa.