Upland moa

Upland moa
Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
Mounted skeleton from Honeycomb Hill Cave, collection of Te Papa

Extinct (c. 1500) (NZ TCS)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Infraclass: Palaeognathae
Clade: Notopalaeognathae
Order: †Dinornithiformes
Family: †Megalapterygidae
Bunce et al., 2009
Genus: †Megalapteryx
Haast 1886[2]
Species:
†M. didinus
Binomial name
†Megalapteryx didinus
(Owen, 1883)[2][3]
Synonyms
list
  • Palaeocasuarius Forbes 1892 ex Rothschild 1907
  • Dinornis didinus Owen 1882 ex Owen 1883
  • Anomalopteryx didina (Owen 1883) Lydekker 1891
  • Megalapteryx hectori Haast 1884 ex Haast 1886
  • Megalapteryx tenuipes Lydekker, 1891
  • Megalapteryx hamiltoni Rothschild 1907
  • Palaeocasuarius velox Forbes 1892 ex Rothschild 1907
  • Palaeocasuarius elegans Rothschild 1907
  • Palaeocasuarius haasti Forbes 1892 ex Rothschild 1907
  • Megalapteryx benhami Archey 1941

The upland moa (Megalapteryx didinus) is an extinct species of moa that was endemic to New Zealand. It is a ratite, a grouping of flightless birds with no keel on the sternum. It was the last moa species to become extinct, vanishing around 1500 CE, and was predominantly found in alpine and sub-alpine environments.[4]

  1. ^ "Megalapteryx didinus. NZTCS". nztcs.org.nz. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  2. ^ a b Brands, Sheila J. (1989). "The Taxonomicon". Zwaag, Netherlands: Universal Taxonomic Services. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2006). Extinct birds of New Zealand. Paul Martinson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Papa Press. ISBN 978-0-909010-21-8. OCLC 80016906.