North Island giant moa

The North Island giant moa (Dinornis novaezealandiae) is one of two extinct moa in the genus Dinornis.

North Island giant moa Temporal range: Late Pleistocene- Holocene
Skeleton, Natural History Museum of London
Conservation status
Extinct
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	†Dinornithiformes
Family:	†Dinornithidae
Genus:	†Dinornis
Species:	†D. novaezealandiae
Binomial name
†Dinornis novaezealandiae (Owen 1843)[1][2]
Synonyms
List Dinornis giganteus Owen, 1844 Dinornis struthoides Owen, 1844 Owenia struthoides (Gray 1855) Dinornis ingens Owen, 1844 Dinornis gigas Owen, 1846 spelling lapse Moa ingens (Owen 1844) Reichenbach, 1850 Movia ingens (Owen 1844) Reichenbach, 1850 Dinornis gracilis Owen, 1855 Dinornis dromioides Oliver 1930 non Owen 1846 Dinornis hercules Oliver 1949 Dinornis gazella Oliver 1949 Dinornis excelsus Hutton, 1891 Dinornis firmus Hutton, 1891 Tylopteryx struthoides (Owen 1844) Hutton, 1891 Palapteryx ingens (Owen 1844) Haast 1869

Taxonomy

Restoration by Frohawk

Skull at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin

It is a ratite and a member of the order Dinornithiformes. The Dinorthiformes are flightless birds with a sternum but 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 where they have been found.[3]

Habitat

This moa lived on the North Island of New Zealand, and lived in the lowlands (shrublands, grasslands, dunelands, and forests).[3]

Footnotes

1. Brands, S. (2008)
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. Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003)

References

• Brands, Sheila (14 August 2008). "Systema Naturae 2000 / Classification, Genus Dinornis". Project: The Taxonomicon. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
• Davies, S.J.J.F. (2003). "Moas". In Hutchins, Michael (ed.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. 8 Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins (2 ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. pp. 95–98. ISBN 0-7876-5784-0.
• Lydekker, Richard (1891). Catalogue of the fossil birds in the British Museum (Natural History). London: British Museum. p. 224. Retrieved 5 January 2010.

External links

• North Island Giant Moa. Dinornis Novaezealandiae. by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
• Holotypes of Dinornis Novaezealandiae in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa