Heavy-footed moa

Heavy-footed moa
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
P. elephantopus skeleton photographed by Roger Fenton
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Infraclass: Palaeognathae
Order: †Dinornithiformes
Family: †Emeidae
Genus: †Pachyornis
Species:
†P. elephantopus
Binomial name
†Pachyornis elephantopus
(Owen, 1856) Lydekker 1891 non Cracraft 1976 [1][2]
Synonyms
List
  • Dinornis elephantopus Owen, 1856
  • Euryapteryx elephantopus (Owen 1856) Hutton 1892
  • Dinornis queenslandiae De Vis, 1884
  • Pachyornis queenslandiae (De Vis 1884) Oliver 1949
  • Dromiceius queenslandiae (De Vis 1884) Miller 1963
  • Euryapteryx ponderosus Hutton, 1891 non Hamilton 1898
  • Pachyornis immanus Lydekker, 1891
  • Euryapteryx immanis (Lydekker 1891) Lambrecht 1933
  • Pachyornis inhabilis Hutton, 1893
  • Pachyornis major Hutton, 1875
  • Pachyornis rothschildi Lydekker, 1892
  • Pachyornis valgus Hutton, 1893
  • Euryapteryx crassa Benham 1910 non (Owen 1846) Hutton 1896
  • Pachyornis murihiku Oliver 1949

The heavy-footed moa (Pachyornis elephantopus) is a species of moa from the lesser moa family. The heavy-footed moa was widespread only in the South Island of New Zealand, and its habitat was the lowlands (shrublands, dunelands, grasslands, and forests).[3] The moa were ratites, flightless birds with a sternum 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 in which they have been found.[3]

The heavy-footed moa was about 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall, and weighed as much as 145 kg (320 lb).[4] Three complete or partially complete moa eggs in museum collections are considered eggs of the heavy-footed moa, all sourced from Otago. These have an average length of 226mm and a width of 158mm, making these the largest moa eggs[5] behind the single South Island giant moa egg specimen.[6]

  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. ^ a b Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003)
  4. ^ Olliver, Narena (2005)
  5. ^ Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2006). Extinct birds of New Zealand. Paul Martinson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Papa Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-909010-21-8. OCLC 80016906.
  6. ^ Gill, B. J. (2006). "A Catalogue of Moa Eggs (Aves: Dinornithiformes)". Records of the Auckland Museum. 43: 55–80. ISSN 1174-9202. JSTOR 42905885. Wikidata Q58623352.