North Island Giant Moa

North Island Giant Moa
Restoration from 1907
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Superorder:	Paleognathae
Order:	Struthioniformes
Family:	Dinornithidae
Genus:	Dinornis
Species:	Dinornis novaezealandiae (Owen 1843)
Binomial name
D. novaezealandiae (Owen 1843)[1]
Synonyms
Dinornis ingens Palapteryx ingens''[2]

The North Island Giant Moa (Dinornis novaezealandiae) is one of three extinct moa in the genus Dinornis. It is a ratite and a member of the Struthioniformes Order. The Struthioniformes are 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 where they have been found.^[3]

This particular moa lived on both the North Island and the South Island of New Zealand, and lived in the lowlands (shrublands, grasslands, dunelands, and forests).^[3]

Footnotes

1. ^ Brands, S. (2008)
2. ^ Lydekker, Richard (1891)
3. ^ ^{a b} Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003)

References

• Brands, Sheila (Aug 14 2008). "Systema Naturae 2000 / Classification, Genus Dinornis". Project: The Taxonomicon. http://www.taxonomy.nl/Main/Classification/51294.htm. Retrieved Feb 04 2009. 
• Davies, S.J.J.F. (2003). "Moas". In Hutchins, Michael. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. 8 Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins (2 ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. pp. 95–98. ISBN 0 7876 5784 0. 
• Lydekker, Richard (1891). Catalogue of the fossil birds in the British Museum (Natural History). London: British Museum. p. 224. 

External links

• North Island Giant Moa. Dinornis Novaezealandiae. by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
• Holotypes of Dinornis Novaezealandiae in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

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