Upland moa
| Upland moa Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
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|---|---|
| Mounted skeleton from Honeycomb Hill Cave, collection of Te Papa | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Infraclass: | Palaeognathae |
| Clade: | Dinocrypturi |
| Order: | †Dinornithiformes |
| Family: | †Megalapterygidae Bunce et al., 2009 |
| Genus: | †Megalapteryx Haast 1886 |
| Species: | †M. didinus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Megalapteryx didinus (Owen, 1883)
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| Synonyms | |
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list
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The upland moa (Megalapteryx didinus) or moa pukepuke (Māori) is an extinct species of moa that was endemic to New Zealand. The species was named by Richard Owen in 1883, and belongs to the ratites, a group of flightless birds with no keel on the sternum. Of all moa species, Megalapteryx didinus has the best-preserved specimens, which occasionally also show impressions of soft tissue. The upland moa lived on the South Island of New Zealand, and was predominantly found in alpine and sub-alpine environment where it fed on flowers, herbs and other vegetation. After the Māori arrived in New Zealand and started hunting it, the species went extinct around 1500 CE. It was the last remaining moa species.