Broad-billed moa

Broad-billed moa
Skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Superorder: Paleognathae
Order: Dinornithiformes
Family: Emeidae
Genus: Euryapteryx
Species: Euryapteryx curtus
(Owen, 1846)[1]
Binomial name
Euryapteryx curtus
(Owen, 1846)[2]
Synonyms

The broad-billed or coastal moa (Euryapteryx curtus) is an extinct species of moa. These moa lived in both the North and the South Islands of New Zealand, and on Stewart Island. Its habitat was in the lowlands (dunelands, forests, shrublands, and grasslands).[3] It was 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 that they have been found in.[3]

Taxonomy

A 2009 genetic study showed that Euryapteryx curtus and Euryapteryx gravis were synonyms.[4] A 2010 study explained size differences among them as sexual dimorphism.[5] A 2012 morphological study interpreted them as subspecies instead.[6]

The cladogram below follows a 2009 analysis by Bunce et al.:[7]


Dinornithidae

Dinornis robustus



Dinornis novaezealandiae



Megalapteryidae

Megalapteryx didinus




Emeidae
 
 
 

Pachyornis australis


 

Pachyornis elephantopus



Pachyornis geranoides






 
 

Anomalopteryx didiformis


 

Emeus crassus



Euryapteryx curtus






Footnotes

  1. Checklist Committee Ornithological Society of New Zealand (2010). "Checklist-of-Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands and the Ross Dependancy Antarctica" (PDF). Te Papa Press. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  2. Owen 1846
  3. 1 2 Davies 2003, pp. 95–98
  4. Bunce et al. 2009
  5. Gill 2010
  6. Worthy & Scofield 2012, p. 87
  7. Bunce, M.; Worthy, T. H.; Phillips, M. J.; Holdaway, R. N.; Willerslev, E.; Haile, J.; Shapiro, B.; Scofield, R. P.; Drummond, A.; Kamp, P. J. J.; Cooper, A. (2009). "The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (49): 20646. doi:10.1073/pnas.0906660106.

References

External links


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