The upland moa (''Megalapteryx didinus'') was a species of

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 ...

endemic to

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 ...

. It was a

ratite 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 ...

, a grouping of flightless birds with no

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 ...

on the

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 ...

. It was the last moa species to become extinct, vanishing in 1445 CE, and was predominantly found in alpine and sub-alpine environments.

Taxonomy

In 2005, a genetic study suggested that ''M. benhami'', which had previously been considered a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of ''M. didinus'', may have been a valid species after all. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

below follows a 2009 analysis by Bunce ''et al.'':

Description

At less than 1 metre tall and about 17 to 34 kilograms, the upland moa was among the smallest of the moa species. Unlike other moas, it had feathers covering all of its body but the beak and the soles of its feet, an adaptation to its cold environment.Flannery, Tim, "A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals", October 2001,

Scientists believed in the past that the upland moa held its neck and head upright; however, it actually carried itself in a stooped posture with its head level to its back. This would have helped it travel through the abundant vegetation in its habitat, whereas an extended neck would have been more suited to open spaces.Museum of New Zealand, "Upland Moa", 1998, http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/theme.aspx?irn=1348 It had no wings or tail.

Distribution and habitat

The upland moa lived only on New Zealand's

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 ...

, in mountains and sub-alpine regions. They travelled to elevations as high as 2000 m (7000 ft).

Behavior and ecology

The upland moa was herbivorous, its diet extrapolated from fossilised stomach contents, droppings, and the structure of its beak and

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

. It ate leaves and small twigs, using its beak to "shear ... with scissor-like moves". Its food required grinding before it could be digested, as indicated by its large crop. A 2004 study of the upland moa's

coprolite A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...

provided evidence that branchlets of trees such as ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'', various lake-edge herbs, and tussock made up part of its diet. This moa usually laid only 1 to 2 blue-green coloured eggs at once, and was likely the only type of moa to lay eggs that were not white in colour. Like the emu and ostrich, male moa cared for the young. The upland moa's only predator before the arrival of humans in New Zealand was the

Haast's eagle Haast's eagle (''Hieraaetus moorei'') is an extinct species of eagle that once lived in the South Island of New Zealand, commonly accepted to be the pouakai of Māori legend.

Extinction

Humans first came in contact with the upland moa around 1250 to 1300 AD, when the

Māori people The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several ce ...

arrived in New Zealand from

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

. Moa, a docile animal, were an easy source of food for the Māori and were eventually hunted to extinction in 1445.

Discoveries

Several specimens with soft tissue and feather remains are known: *

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

A16, found at Queenstown in 1876, is the type of the species. *

Otago Museum Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of t ...

C.68.2A, leg with much muscle tissue, skin and feathers from the Old Man Range *

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

NMNZ S.000400, a skeleton with tissue on neck and head from the

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

area. *

NMNZ S.023080, a foot with some muscle and sinews, found on 7 January 1987 at Mount Owen. This was dated to be about 3,300–3,400 years old. *

NMNZ S.027950, feathers found in 1949 at Takahe Valley, Fiordland, New Zealand. * Canterbury Museum NZ 1725, Remains of one partial egg which have been found at the

Rakaia River The Rakaia River is in the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand's South Island. The Rakaia River is one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand. The Rakaia River has a mean flow of and a mean annual seven-day low flow of . In the 1850s, Euro ...

in 1971 are tentatively attributed to this species. The

radiocarbon date Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

of approximately AD 1300–1400 is in line with this. Unusually, the eggshell is dark olive green, but even if the egg is of ''M. didinus'', the shell colour may have varied between individual eggs. *

NMNZ S.023700, complete skeleton found by

Trevor Worthy Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates. Biography Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High S ...

in March 1987 at Honeycomb Hill Cave, Oparara Valley *

AV10049, skeleton and partial egg found in 2002 at Serpentine Range, Humboldt Mountains.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * *

External links

* *
''Upland Moa. Megalapteryx didinus.''
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'' by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
Articulated skeleton
at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Articulated Upland moa skeleton
at the Otago Museum {{Taxonbar, from=Q998863

upland moa The upland moa (''Megalapteryx didinus'') was a species of moa endemic to New Zealand. It was a ratite, a grouping of flightless birds with no keel on the sternum. It was the last moa species to become extinct, vanishing in 1445 CE, and was p ...

Birds of the South Island Extinct flightless birds Extinct birds of New Zealand Bird extinctions since 1500 Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Ratites

Species made extinct by human activities