Giant Moa
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| Dinornis maximus | ||||||||||||||
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North Island Giant Moa, D. novaezelandiae (type) |
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The giant moa (Dinornis) is an extinct genus of ratite birds belonging to the moa family. It was endemic to New Zealand.
Dinornis were among the largest birds that ever lived, standing 3.6 m (12 ft) tall and weighing 300 kg. Feather remains are reddish brown and hair-like, and apparently covered most of the body except the lower legs and most of the head (plus a small portion of the neck below the head). The feet were large and powerful, and the birds had a long neck that allowed them to reach tall vegetation. In relation to its body, the head was small, with a pointed, short, flat and somewhat curved beak. Overall, the giant moa probably resembled a heavy ostrich. They filled the same ecological niche as grazing mammals on the continents.
The giant moa, along with other moa species, were wiped out by human colonists who hunted it for food. All taxa in this genus were extinct by 1500 in New Zealand. It is reliably known that the Maoris still hunted them at the beginning of the fifteenth century, driving them into pits and robbing their nests. The most important factor[citation needed] was farming, however, for which the forests were cut and burnt down and the ground was turned into arable land.
The moas seem to have died out at the end of the fifteenth century, although there is actually a nineteenth century report of hunters who claimed to have caught sight of some of these giant birds, but dared not venture to shoot them.
[edit] Taxonomy
Three species of Dinornis were long considered valid:
- D. giganteus = D. robustus,
- D. novaezealandiae,
- D. struthioides.
They have recently turned out to be males (struthioides) and females of only two species, one each formerly occurring on New Zealand's North Island (D. novaezealandiae) and South Island (D. robustus) (Huynen et al., 2003; Bunce et al., 2003); the North Island specimens, however, contain 3 distinct genetic lineages and may eventually be classified as new species (Baker et al., 2005).
[edit] References
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- Baker, Allan J.; Huynen, Leon J.; Haddrath, Oliver; Millar, Craig D. & Lambert, David M. (2005): Reconstructing the tempo and mode of evolution in an extinct clade of birds with ancient DNA: The giant moas of New Zealand. PNAS 102(23): 8257-8262. DOI:10.1073/pnas.0409435102 PDF fulltext Supporting Information
- Benes, Josef. Prehistoric Animals and Plants. Pg. 191. Prague: Artia, 1979.
- Bunce, Michael; Worthy, Trevor H.; Ford, Tom; Hoppitt, Will; Willerslev, Eske; Drummond, Alexei & Cooper, Alan (2003): Extreme reversed sexual size dimorphism in the extinct New Zealand moa Dinornis. Nature 425(6954): 172-175. DOI:10.1038/nature01871 HTML abstract Supplementary information
- Huynen, Leon J.; Millar, Craig D.; Scofield, R. P. & Lambert, David M. (2003): Nuclear DNA sequences detect species limits in ancient moa. Nature 425(6954): 175-178. DOI:10.1038/nature01838 HTML abstract Supplementary information
- Owen, Richard (1843): [On the remains of Dinornis, an extinct gigantic struthious bird.] Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1843: 8-10, 144-146.
