The Crested Moa, Pachyornis australis, is a species of Moa

Moa

The moa were eleven species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about ....

 from the family Dinornithidae. It is one of the 11 known species of Moa to have existed. Moa are grouped together with Emu

Emu

The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...

s, Ostrich

Ostrich

The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...

es, Kiwi

Kiwi

Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world...

s, Cassowaries

Cassowary

The cassowaries are ratites, very large flightless birds in the genus Casuarius native to the tropical forests of New Guinea, nearby islands and northeastern Australia. There are three extant species recognized today...

, and Rhea

Rhea (bird)

The rheas are ratites in the genus Rhea, native to South America. There are two existing species: the Greater or American Rhea and the Lesser or Darwin's Rhea. The genus name was given in 1752 by Paul Möhring and adopted as the English common name. Möhring's reason for choosing this name, from the...

s in the Ratite

Ratite

A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin, most of them now extinct. Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum—hence the name from the Latin ratis...

group. Ratites are flightless birds that do not have a keeled sternum.

Description

The Crested Moa weighed around 75 kg (165.3 lb), and lived on the South Island of New Zealand – being the dominant species in both the far north and far south of this island. It could live in cold alpine terrain.

The Crested Moa was, like most species of Moa, a huge bird, though it was lighter than some of the other large species.

Etymology

The name Crested Moa is due to pits being found in their skulls, suggesting they had crests. These cranial pits are also found occasionally in Dinornis, Anomalopteryx, and other Pachyornis species.

External links

• Crested Moa. Pachyornis australis. by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
• Holotype of Pachyornis australis in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa