Dinornithiformes

Moa are an extinct group of flightless birds formerly endemic to New Zealand. During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene, there were nine species, in six genera. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 metres (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kilograms (510 lb); the smallest, the bush moa, was about the size of a turkey. Estimates of the moa population when Polynesians settled New Zealand circa 1300 C.E. range from 58,000 to 2.5 million.

Dinornithiformes

Natural History Museum, London · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ApterygimorphaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 18.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 6 of 108 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 108 occurrencesPleistocene — about 36 of 108 occurrencesPleistocene19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.2–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–640 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences640 ka–0 Mya — about 97 occurrences15.9 Mya11.7 ka19.2 Mya0 Mya

108 occurrences of Dinornithiformes on record. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

108 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Hillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°EBannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EBannockburn — 44.89°S, 169.84°EBannockburn — 44.88°S, 169.75°EDunstan — 44.88°S, 169.75°E

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The named rock units Dinornithiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 92 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

212 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Dinornithiformes, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

9 references

Each of the 108 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Dinornithiformes

Credit
Natural History Museum, London
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dinornithiformes was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itApterygimorphae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.