Euryapteryx curtus ssp. curtus (Coastal Moa)

[Melanie]

The Coastal Moa was one of the smallest of the Moa birds. The Coastal Moa and the Eastern Moa and the Stout-legged Moa are stout, short-legged birds with a broad blunt bill, the Stout-legged Moa being the stoutest of the three species of the sub family Emeiae.

The Coastal Moa lived in the drier areas where there was abundant shrubland as well as open canopy forest and some grassland. It was widespread throughout most of the North Island and the dominant species in the central North Island, the volcanic plateau, and along the Wanganui - Taranaki Coast.

The male stood about a metre tall, the female a little taller at around 1.3 metres. The species weighted around 20 kilogramms. However, there is a wide variability in size within species, some birds being twice as big as the smallest in the species.

The Coastal Moa, the Eastern Moa and the Stout-legged Moa had a diet probably dominated by fruit and leaves and large insects, unlike the larger birds which had a more fibrous diet consisting of twigs as well. Chicks fed on insects.

All Moa species, as in all birds, had a syrinx, the bird’s vocal organ. Worthy and Holdaway postulate that because the Coastal Moa, the Eastern Moa and the Stout–legged Moa, together with the Upland Moa had the smallest olfactory chambers, they had the greatest vocal abilities. They perhaps needed loud calls in their mixed dense grassland, shrubland and forest environments. They also postulate that males may have had lek behavior or even been noctural. We don’t know.

[another specialist]

source for above

www.nzbirds.com/birds/moacoastal.html

[another specialist]

nandu.na.funpic.de/moa.htm

[RSN]

Grzimek pic:



animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/grzimek_birds/Dinornithidae/Euryapteryx_curtus.jpg/view.html

[another specialist]

RSN Its the same image as i've posted previously just mine is a transparent version

[Carlos]

More images from the series: Extinct Birds of New Zealand
Coastal Stout-legged Moa Euryapteryx curtus

collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectsearch.aspx

[another specialist]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[another specialist]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[another specialist]

All now classed as as Euryapteryx geranoides apart from Exilis now classed as Coastal Moa Euryapteryx curtus



Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[surroundx]

Wood, J. R. and Wilmshurst, J. M. (2013). Pollen analysis of coprolites reveals dietary details of heavy-footed moa (Pachyornis elephantopus) and coastal moa (Euryapteryx curtus) from Central Otago. N. Z. J. Ecol. 37(1): 151-155.

[surroundx]

Huynen, L. and Lambert, D. M. (2014). Complex Species Status for Extinct Moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) from the Genus Euryapteryx. PLoS ONE 9(3): e90212.

[Peter]

We accept three families, six genera and nine species, and make the new combinations of Euryapteryx curtus curtus (Owen) and E. curtus gravis (Owen). Complete or near complete exemplars of the skull of all moa taxa, most not illustrated before, are shown in dorsal, lateral and ventral views.

source:
Worthy, T. H.; Scofield, R. P. (2012). "Twenty-first century advances in knowledge of the biology of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes): a new morphological analysis and moa diagnoses revised". New Zealand Journal of Zoology 39 (2): 87–153. doi:10.1080/03014223.2012.665060.

[Peter]

May 7, 2014 5:47:37 GMT surroundx said:

Huynen, L. and Lambert, D. M. (2014). Complex Species Status for Extinct Moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) from the Genus Euryapteryx. PLoS ONE 9(3): e90212.

Abstract
The exact species status of New Zealand's extinct moa remains unknown. In particular, moa belonging to the genus Euryapteryx have been difficult to classify. We use the DNA barcoding sequence on a range of Euryapteryx samples in an attempt to resolve the species status for this genus. We obtained mitochondrial control region and the barcoding region from Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I (COI) from a number of new moa samples and use available sequences from previous moa phylogenies and eggshell data to try and clarify the species status of Euryapteryx. Using the COI barcoding region we show that species status in Euryapteryx is complex with no clear separation between various individuals. Eggshell, soil, and bone data suggests that a Euryapteryx subspecies likely exists on New Zealand's North Island and can be characterized by a single mitochondrial control region SNP. COI divergences between Euryapteryx individuals from the south of New Zealand's South Island and those from the Far North of the North Island exceed 1.6% and are likely to represent separate species. Individuals from other areas of New Zealand were unable to be clearly separated based on COI differences possibly as a result of repeated hybridisation events. Despite the accuracy of the COI barcoding region to determine species status in birds, including that for the other moa genera, for moa from the genus Euryapteryx, COI barcoding fails to provide a clear result, possibly as a consequence of repeated hybridisation events between these moa. A single control region SNP was identified however that segregates with the two general morphological variants determined for Euryapteryx; a smaller subspecies restricted to the North Island of New Zealand, and a larger subspecies, found on both New Zealand's North and South Island.

[surroundx]

Holdaway, Richard N., Hawke, D. J., Bunce, M. and Allentoft, M. E. (2011). Identification of an optimal sampling position for stable isotopic analysis of bone collagen of extinct moa (Aves: Emeidae). Notornis 58(1): 1-7.

[surroundx]

McCallum, J., Hall, S., Lissone, I., Anderson, J., Huynen, L. and Lambert, D. M. (2013). Highly Informative Ancient DNA ‘Snippets’ for New Zealand Moa. PLoS ONE 8(1): e50732.

[surroundx]

Allentoft, M. E., Scofield, R. P., Oskam, C. L.,Hale, M. L., Holdaway, Richard N. and Bunce, M. (2011). A molecular characterization of a newly discovered megafaunal fossil site in North Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 42(4): 241-256.

[surroundx]

Attard, M. R. G., Wilson, L. A. B., Worthy, T. H., Scofield, P., Johnston, P., Parr, W. C. H. and Wroe, S. (2016). Moa diet fits the bill: virtual reconstruction incorporating mummified remains and prediction of biomechanical performance in avian giants. Proc. R. Soc. B 283: 20152043.

[surroundx]

Worthy, Trevor H. and Holdaway, Richard N. (2000). Terrestrial fossil vertebrate faunas from inland Hawke's Bay, North Island, New Zealand. Part 1. Records of the Canterbury Museum 14: 89-154.

[Sebbe]

Augustus Hamilton’s fossil collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Augustus Hamilton (1853–1913) was a New Zealand ethnologist and naturalist who amassed a significant collection of fossils, mostly of birds, during his career. Today, those fossils are housed in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (NMNZ). While some fossils have been catalogued and integrated into the collection of the NMNZ, a large part remained unsorted and uncatalogued. The present study brings an integrated view of Hamilton’s collection at the NMNZ, highlighting the most significant fossils. In total, there are 3692 specimen lots collected by Hamilton in the NMNZ representing a large sample of taxa and a wide range of locations around Aotearoa New Zealand. Most fossils are of Holocene age and belong to birds. The collection includes type specimens, circa 250 specimen lots belonging to extinct species, and specimens belonging to otherwise poorly represented species in natural history collections. We hope that our study makes Hamilton’s fossils visible and more readily available for future research.

tuhinga.arphahub.com/article/97731/

[Sebbe]

Thickness histograms of Holocene fossil eggshell fragments indicate diversity and relative abundance of moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes) at North Island sites.

Moa eggshell fragments from 13 North Island sites (New Zealand), were 0.54–1.74 mm thick (n = 6036). Thicknesses with published DNA-identifications overlapped greatly between the four North Island species, but median thicknesses were separate: Pachyornis geranoides thinnest, Dinornis novaezealandiae thickest, and Euryapteryx curtus and Anomalopteryx didiformis in the middle, but with the former slightly thinner. Thickness histograms for regional samples of unidentified moa eggshell fragments, each had one of four thickness patterns: Type A (thin eggshell only), Type B (thick eggshell only), Type C (medium-thickness eggshell only), and Type D (all thicknesses present). The Gisborne site, poorly-known from moa bones, had a similar thickness profile (Type D, skewed towards thin shell) to North Cape and Tokerau Beach implying a similar moa fauna. Eggshell thicknesses suggested that D. novaezealandiae was absent at Port Jackson (Type A histogram) and that P. geranoides was absent at Whananaki (Type B pattern) and rare at Herbertville (Type D, skewed towards thick shell). Thickness analysis for eggshell from a Lake Taupo archaeological site suggested that few eggs of just one species were involved, whereas a wide spread of shell thicknesses for a Great Mercury Island site implied a contribution from several species.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03014223.2021.1970585