Heavy-footed moa
| Heavy-footed moa Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene | |
|---|---|
| P. elephantopus skeleton from the Auckland Museum. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Infraclass: | Palaeognathae |
| Order: | †Dinornithiformes |
| Family: | †Emeidae |
| Genus: | †Pachyornis |
| Species: | †P. elephantopus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Pachyornis elephantopus (Owen, 1856) Lydekker 1891 non Cracraft 1976 | |
| Synonyms | |
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List
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The heavy-footed moa (Pachyornis elephantopus) is an extinct species of moa from the lesser moa family. The heavy-footed moa was widespread across the South Island of New Zealand, and inhabited lowland environments like shrublands, dunelands, grasslands, and forests. Moa are ratites, flightless birds with a sternum without a keel. They also have a distinctive palate.
The heavy-footed moa was about 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall, and weighed as much as 145 kg (320 lb). Three complete or partially complete moa eggs in museum collections are considered eggs of the heavy-footed moa, all sourced from Otago. These eggs have an average length of 226 mm (8.9 in) and a width of 158 mm (6.2 in), making these the second-largest moa eggs, behind the single South Island giant moa egg specimen.