The South Island giant moa (''Dinornis robustus'') is an extinct

moa Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. The term has also come to be used for chicken in many Polynesian cultures and is found in the names of many chicken recipes, such as Kale moa and Moa Samoa. Moa or MOA may also refe ...

from the genus ''

Dinornis The giant moa (''Dinornis'') is an extinct genus of birds belonging to the moa family. As with other moa, it was a member of the order Dinornithiformes. It was endemic to New Zealand. Two species of ''Dinornis'' are considered valid, the North ...

.''

Context

The moa were

ratites A ratite () is any of a diverse group of flightless, large, long-necked, and long-legged birds of the infraclass Palaeognathae. Kiwi, the exception, are much smaller and shorter-legged and are the only nocturnal extant ratites. The systematics o ...

, flightless birds with a

sternum The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sh ...

without a

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

. They also had a distinctive

palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

. 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 in which they have been found.Davies 2003.

Description

The South Island giant moa was the largest species of moa. Adult females stood up to 200 centimetres (6 ft 6 in) high at the back, and could reach foliage up to 3.6 metres (11 ft 10 in) off the ground, making them the tallest bird species known. Despite their great height, ''Dinornis robustus'' was found to have weighed only 200 kg (440 lb) on average. Only one specimen of complete or partially complete moa egg has been assigned to the South Island giant moa, found around

Kaikōura Kaikōura () is a town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 1, 180 km north of Christchurch. The town has an estimated permanent resident population of (as of ). The town is the government ...

. This egg, 240 mm in length and 178 mm in width, is the largest moa egg found in museum collections as of 2006.

Range

It lived in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

as well as in

Rakiura Rakiura may refer to: * Stewart Island/Rakiura, the third-largest island of New Zealand * ''Rakiura'' (insect), a genus of insects endemic to New Zealand * Rakiura National Park Rakiura National Park is a nature reserve park located on Stewar ...

, and its habitat was the lowlands (shrubland, duneland, grassland, and forests). Along with other members of the moa family, the South Island giant moa went extinct due to predation from humans in the centuries following human colonization.Perry; Wheeler; Wood; Wilmshurst 2014: 126–135.

References

Sources

* * * Gill, B. J. (2006). "A Catalogue of Moa Eggs (Aves: Dinornithiformes)". ''

Records of the Auckland Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Aucklan ...

''. 43: 55–80. . * Gill, B. J.; Bell, B. D.; Chambers, G. K.; Medway, D. G.; Palma, R. L.; Scofield, R. P.; Tennyson, A. J. D.; Worthy, T. H. (2010).
Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica
'. 4th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Te Papa Press. Retrieved 30 October 2022. * Perry, George L. W.; Wheeler, Andrew B.; Wood, Jamie R.; Wilmshurst, Janet M. (1 December 2014). "A high-precision chronology for the rapid extinction of New Zealand moa (Aves, Dinornithiformes)". ''Quaternary Science Reviews''. 105: 126–135. . Retrieved 30 October 2022. * Szabo, M. J. (2013). "South Island giant moa". In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.)
New Zealand Birds Online
* Verry, Alexander J. F.; Schmidt, Matthew; Rawlence, Nicolas J. (15 November 2021). "A partial skeleton provides evidence for the former occurrence of moa populations on Rakiura Stewart Island". ''

New Zealand Journal of Ecology The ''New Zealand Journal of Ecology'' is a biannual peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing ecological research relevant to New Zealand and the South Pacific. It has been published since 1952, firstly as a 1952 issue of ''New Zealand Scienc ...

''. 46 (1).

External links

"South Island Giant Moa. Dinornis robustus. From the series: Extinct birds of New Zealand"
Artwork by Paul Martinson ennyson, Alan (2006). ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand.'' Wellington: Te Papa Press {{Taxonbar, from=Q3501588

South Island giant moa The South Island giant moa (''Dinornis robustus'') is an extinct moa from the genus ''Dinornis.'' Context The moa were Ratite, ratites, flightless birds with a sternum without a Keel (bird anatomy), keel. They also had a distinctive palate. T ...

Birds of the South Island Holocene extinctions Extinct flightless birds Extinct birds of New Zealand Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Ratites