Broad-billed moa

Broad-billed moa Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
Restoration
Conservation status
Extinct
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Infraclass:	Palaeognathae
Order:	†Dinornithiformes
Family:	†Emeidae
Genus:	†Euryapteryx Haast, 1874
Species:	†E. curtus
Binomial name
Euryapteryx curtus (Owen, 1846)[1][2]
Synonyms
List Cela Reichenbach 1853 non Moehring 1758 Celeus Bonaparte 1856 non Boie 1831 Zelornis Oliver 1949 Dinornis curtus Owen, 1846 Cela curtus (Owen 1846) Reichenbach, 1850 Celeus curtus (Owen 1846) Bonaparte, 1865 Anomalopteryx curta (Owen 1846) Lydekker 1891 Euryapteryx curtus (Owen 1846) Archey 1941 Mesopteryx species α Parker 1895 Euryapteryx exilis Hutton, 1897 Zelornis exilis (Hutton 1897) Oliver 1949 Euryapteryx tane Oliver 1949 Dinornis gravis Owen, 1870 Pachyornis gravis (Owen 1870) Euryapteryx pygmaeus Hutton 1891 non Pachyornis pygmaeus Hutton 1895 Emeus gravipes Lydekker, 1891 Euryapteryx gravipes (Lydekker 1891) Oliver 1930 Euryapteryx compacta Hutton 1893 Emeus crassus Parker 1895 non (Owen 1846) Reichenbach 1853 Euryapteryx ponderosa Hamilton 1898 non Hutton 1891 Emeus boothi Rothschild 1907 Emeus haasti Rothschild 1907 non Palaeocasuarius haasti Rothschild 1907 Zelornis haasti (Rothschild 1907) Oliver 1949 Euryapteryx haasti (Rothschild 1907) Emeus parkeri Rothschild 1907 Euryapteryx kuranui Oliver 1930 Euryapteryx geranoides Checklist Committee 1990 non Palapteryx geranoides

The broad-billed moa or coastal moa (Euryapteryx curtus) was an extinct moa from New Zealand. It lived in the North and the South Islands and on Stewart Island.

The coastal moa mainly lived in dry shrubland areas. It was lived almost all over North Island. The dominant species lived in the center, the volcanic plateau and along the Wanganui-Taranaki Coast.

The birds were fat and short-legged. Males were about a meter tall. Females were a little bit taller (1.3 meters). They varied in size, some were even twice as big as others. They weighed about 20 kg. It is thought that they mainly ate fruit, leaves and large insects. Chicks ate insects.

It is thought that because coastal moas (among others) had a small olfactory chamber, they had great vocal abilities.

References

1. Owen 1846 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFOwen1846 (help)
2. Checklist Committee Ornithological Society of New Zealand (2010). "Checklist-of-Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands and the Ross Dependency Antarctica" (PDF). Te Papa Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2016.

Other websites

• New Zealand birds website: Coastal Moa