Skip to main content

Upland Moa

Upland Moa Illustration by Peter Schouten
Phylum :Chordata
Class : Aves
Order : Struthioniformes
Family : †Dinornithidae
Genus : †Megalapteryx
Species : †M. didinus

Height : 4ft (1.3m)
Weight : 55lbs (25kg)

Status : Extinct since 1500CE

I feel like this might be a little bit of a cheat here, since I did actually cover Moas before, albeit in a very general fashion. Today though, I'll be talking about one specific species of Moa, the Upland Moa, which was the smallest of the species, as well as the last to go extinct.

Upland Moas, as the name suggests, lived in the higher, cooler elevations of New Zealand's South Island. One remarkable feature of this species is that they are the only Moas to have feathers all the way down their legs and feet. The feathers and their small size were adaptations to their cold weather environment.

Mummified Moa Head
How do we know about these feathers? Mummification of course! Because Upland Moas lived in such cold, dry habitats, their bodies have been subject to the process of natural mummification. We have examples of mummified Upland Moa heads and feet, which allow us to know more about the species than mere bones would. For example, we know from these specimens that Upland Moas had small olfactory chambers, which means that they may have had greater vocal skills then other Moas.

Their high elevation habitat is probably what allowed these birds to live longer then the other Moas. They only had one predator before the arrival or man, the Haast's Eagle, and due to their remote location it took humans longer to find and hunt them. They went extinct sometimes around 1500CE.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bornean Orangutan

The Bornean Orangutan is one of two extant Orangutan species in the world. It is the third largest primate (after Gorillas) and is the largest primarily tree-dwelling animal in the world. Males are substantially larger than females, and average at around 165lbs. Bornean Orangutans are largely solitary. A handful might live within a small range but they will seldom interact with one another. Males and females only meet up to breed, which happens only once every several years. A young Orangutan will stay with it's mother for about five years, and the females tend to go about eight years between births. That is the longest interim period of any animal! Sadly, the Bornean Orangutans are in a lot of trouble. They need large forests in order to thrive, and deforestation and habitat degradation has left many homeless. They are also hunted for meat and for traditional medicines. Conservation areas are being established to help these guys in the wild, and it is believed that there are a...
59 comments
Read more

Four!

For anyone who was counting, yesterday was our birthday-- four years! Four years filled with animals from A to Z, more than 1,100 of them! I can't thank my readers enough, it's been wonderful! And in celebration of that milestone... I'm taking a break. Hopefully not forever, but for a little bit at least. In the mean time I plan on getting a new layout out, along with some updates to some of the older articles. I'll post updates here and on the Facebook page, I'm also brainstorming some new animal-related projects, so keep an eye out! Thanks again for four awesome years!
18 comments
Read more

Banggai Cardinalfish

Pterapogon kauderni The Banggai Cardinalfish is a small tropical fish that is becoming very rare in the wild, even though it has been successfully bred in captivity. You will only find these small, 3in long fish around the Banggai Islands of Indonesia. They are the only members of their genus, and you can tell them apart from other Cardinalfish by their three-striped bodies, tasseled first dorsal fin, long second dorsal, and their deep-forked tail fins. Banggai Cardinalfish are diurnal and live in small groups of about a dozen members. They are opportunistic feeders who dine on whatever smaller plants and animals they can find. Courtship and mating is pretty interesting for these guys-- females are the ones who initiate. They isolate a male and the pair will perform various courtship rituals before spawning. The Cardinalfish are mouthbrooders, which means that the males take the fertilized eggs (up to 90 of them) into their mouths and incubate them for up to 30 days. During t...
37 comments
Read more