The giant moa (Dinornis) is an extinct genus of ratite birds belonging to the moa family. It was endemic to New Zealand. Families Struthionidae (ostriches) Rheidae (rheas) Casuariidae (emus etc. ... Genera Anomalopteryx (bush moa) Euryapteryx Megalapteryx (upland moa) Dinornis (giant moa) Emeus Pachyornis Moa were giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. ... Endemic, in a broad sense, can mean belonging or native to, characteristic of, or prevalent in a particular geography, race, field, area, or environment; Native to an area or scope. ...

Dinornis were among the largest birds that ever lived, standing 3.6 m (10 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 obdy, 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. This article is about the unit of length. ... A foot (plural: feet; symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... Kg redirects here. ... Two feathers Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds. ... For the 1968 stage production, see Hair (musical), for the 1979 film, see Hair (film). ... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 The present-day distribution of Ostriches. ... Two lichens on a rock, in two different ecological niches In ecology, a niche; (pronounced nich, neesh or nish)[1] is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem[1]. The ecological niche; describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of... Subclasses & Infraclasses Subclass †Allotheria* Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria Mammals (class Mammalia) are warm-blooded, vertebrate animals characterized by the presence of sweat glands, including those that produce milk, and by the presence of: hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex... Animated, colour-coded map showing the various 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 stil hunted them at the beginning of the seventeenth century, driving them into puts and robbing their nests. The most important factor was farming, however, for which the forests were cut and burnt down and the ground was turned into arable land. This article is about modern humans. ... 1500 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Te Puni, Māori Chief Māori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. ...

The moas seem to have died out at the end of the seventeenth 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.

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).

References

Dinornis spp., giant moa from The New Gresham Encyclopedia

• 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.