Dinornis

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Dinornis
D. novaezealandiae, Natural History Museum of London
Conservation status

Extinct  (c.1500)  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Superorder: Paleognathae
Order: Dinornithiformes
Family: †Dinornithidae
Genus: †Dinornis
(Owen, 1843)
Species

D. novaezealandiae North Island Giant Moa
D. robustus South Island Giant Moa
Dinornis new lineage A (undescribed taxon)
Dinornis new lineage B (undescribed taxon)

Synonyms
  • Dinoris (lapsus)
  • "Megalornis" Owen, 1843 (non Gray, 1841: preoccupied, nomen nudum)
  • Moa (Reichenbach, 1850)
  • Movia (Reichenbach, 1850)
  • Owenia (Gray, 1855)
  • Palapteryx (Owen, 1851)
  • Tylopteryx (Hutton, 1891)

The giant moa (Dinornis) is an extinct genus of ratite birds belonging to the moa family. Like all ratites it was a member of the order Struthioniformes. The Struthioniformes are flightless birds with a sternum without a keel. They also have a distinctive palate. It was endemic to New Zealand. Two species of Dinornis are considered valid, D. novaezealandiae of the North Island, and D. robustus of the South.

Description

D. robustus skeleton
D. struthoides skeleton, now known to be a male Dinornis, not a distinct species

Dinornis may have been the tallest bird that ever lived, with the females of the largest species standing 3.6 m (12 ft) tall,[1] and one of the most massive, weighing 230–240 kg (510–530 lb)[2] or 278 kg (613 lb)[3] in various estimates. 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.

Sexual dimorphism

It has been long suspected that several species of moa constituted males and females, respectively. This has been confirmed by analysis for sex-specific genetic markers of DNA extracted from bone material.[4] For example, prior to 2003 there were three species of Dinornis recognised: South Island giant moa (D. robustus ), North Island giant moa (D. novaezealandiae) and slender moa (D. struthioides). However, DNA showed that all D. struthioides were in fact males, and all D. robustus were females. Therefore the three species of Dinornis were reclassified as two species, one each formerly occurring on New Zealand's North Island (D. novaezealandiae) and South Island (D. robustus );[4][5] robustus however, comprises three distinct genetic lineages and may eventually be classified as many species. Dinornis seems to have had the most pronounced sexual dimorphism of all moa, with females being up to 150% as tall and 280% as heavy as males.

Extinction

Prior to the arrival of humans, giant moas had had an ecologically stable population in (what is now known as) New Zealand for at least 40,000 years.[6] The giant moa, along with other moa genera, were wiped out by Polynesian settlers,[6] who hunted it for food. All taxa in this genus were extinct by 1500 in New Zealand. It is reliably known that the Māori still hunted them at the beginning of the fifteenth century, driving them into pits and robbing their nests. Although some birds became extinct due to farming, for which the forests were cut and burned down and the ground was turned into arable land, the giant moa had been extinct for 300 years prior to the arrival of European settlers. [citation needed]

References

Specific citations
  1. ↑ Wood, Gerald (1983)
  2. ↑ Amadon, D. (1947)
  3. ↑ Campbell Jr., K. & Marcus, L. (1992)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Huynen, L. J.,et al. (2003)
  5. ↑ Bunce, M., et al. (2003)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Giant Moa Had Climate Change Figured out". ScienceDaily. August 3, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-06. 
General references
Amadon, D. (1947). "An estimated weight of the largest known bird". Condor 49: 159–164. 
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" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (23): 8257–8262. doi:10.1073/pnas.0409435102. PMC 1149408. PMID 15928096. Retrieved Feb 14, 2011. 
Benes, Josef (1979). Prehistoric Animals and Plants. London, UK: Hamlyn. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-600-30341-1 
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. PMID 12968178. 
Campbell, Jr., K. E.; Marcus, L. (1992). "The relationship of hindlimb bone dimensions to body weight in birds". Papers in avian paleontology honoring Pierce Brodkorb. Science (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) (36): 395–412. 
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. PMID 12968179. 
Owen, Richard (1843). "On the remains of Dinornis, an extinct gigantic struthious bird". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 8–10, 144–146. 
Wood, Gerald (1983). The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats (3rd ed.). Sterling Publishing Company Inc. ISBN 978-0-85112-235-9. 

External links

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