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Anomalopteryx didiformis (Owen, 1844b:242)

Little bush moa, Little scrub moa, Moariki (Māori)

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Dinornis didiformis Owen, 1843:778 [nomen nudum]; Dinornis didiformis Owen, 1844a:144 [nomen nudum]; Dinornis didiformis Owen, 1844b: 242; Anomalornis didiformis (Owen, 1844b:242); Dinornis dromaeoides Owen, 1844a:145 [nomen nudum]; Dinornis dromaeoides Owen, 1844b:253; Anomalopteryx dromaeoides (Owen, 1844b:253); Dinornis dromioides Owen, 1846:46 [unjustified emendation]; Dinornis (Palapteryx) dromioides Owen, 1846:47 [unjustified emendation]; Dinornis parvus Owen, 1883:233; Anomalopteryx parvus (Owen, 1883:233); Anomalopteryx parva (Owen, 1883:233); Dinornis oweni Haast, 1886:171; Anomalornis owenii (Haast, 1886:171) [unjustified emendation]; Pachyornis owenii (Haast, 1886:171) [unjustified emendation]; Anomalopteryx antiquus Hutton, 1892:124; Anomalopteryx antiqua Hutton, 1893:14 [unjustified emendation]; Anomalopteryx fortis Hutton, 1893:9; Anomalornis gracilis Hutton, 1897:546, pl. 47, fig. A [junior secondary homonym of Dinornis gracilis Owen, 1854]

 

A complete synonymy taken from (Checklist Committee (OSNZ), 2022:15):

Dinornis didiformis Owen, 1843: The Literary Gazette 1402: 778 [nomen nudum]; Dinornis didiformis Owen, 1844 (Mar.): Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1843 (11): 144 [nomen nudum]; Dinornis didiformis Owen, 1844 (Jun.): Trans. Zool. Soc. London 3(3): 242 – Poverty Bay; Anomalopteryx didiformis (Owen); Lydekker 1891, Cat. Fossil Birds Brit. Museum: 275; Anomalornis didiformis (Owen); Hutton 1897, Trans. N.Z. Inst 29: 547; Dinornis dromaeoides Owen, 1844 (Mar.): Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1843 (11): 145 [nomen nudum]; Dinornis dromaeoides Owen, 1844 (Jun.): Trans. Zool. Soc. London 3(3): 253 – Poverty Bay; Dinornis dromioides Owen, 1846: Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1846 (14): 46 [unjustified emendation]; Dinornis (Palapteryx) dromioides Owen, 1846: Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1846 (14): 47 [unjustified emendation]; Anomalopteryx dromaeoides (Owen); Lydekker 1891, Cat. Fossil Birds Brit. Museum: 266; Dinornis parvus Owen, 1883: Trans. Zool. Soc. London 11(8): 233 – Pokororo, Nelson; Anomalopteryx parvus (Owen); Oliver 1930, New Zealand Birds, 1st edition: 45; Anomalopteryx parva (Owen); Lydekker 1891, Cat. Fossil Birds Brit. Museum: 278; Dinornis oweni Haast, 1886: Trans. Zool. Soc. London 12(5): 171 – Whangarei; Anomalornis owenii (Haast); Hutton 1897, Trans. N.Z. Inst. 29: 549 [unjustified emendation]; Pachyornis owenii (Haast); Archey 1941, Bull. Auck. Inst. Museum 1: 44 [unjustified emendation]; Anomalopteryx antiquus Hutton, 1892: Trans. N.Z. Inst. 24: 124 – Timaru; Anomalopteryx antiqua Hutton, 1893: Trans. N.Z. Inst. 25: 14 [unjustified emendation]; Anomalopteryx fortis Hutton, 1893: Trans. N.Z. Inst. 25: 9 – Glenmark; Anomalornis gracilis Hutton, 1897: Trans. N.Z. Inst. 29: 546, pl. 47, fig. A – Opito, near Mercury Bay, Coromandel [junior secondary homonym of Dinornis gracilis Owen, 1854]

 

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: Holocene

 

Distribution

North Island, South Island & Stewart Island (Rakiura), New Zealand

 

Biology & Ecology

 

 

Hypodigm

 

 

Media

Above: Little Bush Moa. Anomalopteryx didiformis. From the series: Extinct Birds of New Zealand., 2005, Masterton, by Paul Martinson. Purchased 2006. © Te Papa. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (2006-0010-1/22)

 

References

Original scientific description:

Owen, R. (1844) Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 3(3): 242

 

Other references:

Anderson, A. (1989). Prodigious Birds. Moas and Moa-Hunting in New Zealand. Cambridge University Press. 238 pp.

Anonymous. (2008). Australian pursues moa in Urewera Ranges. The New Zealand Herald, 9 January (Wednesday), available online: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10485889

Atkinson, I. A. E. and Greenwood, R. M. (1989). Relationships between moas and plants. NZ J. Ecol. 12: 67-96.

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.

Baker, Allan J. et al. (2005). Reconstructing the tempo and mode of evolution in an extinct clade of birds with ancient DNA: The giant moas of New Zealand. PNAS 102(23): 8257-8262.

Barrington, Mike. (2008). Maybe the moa survived. The Northern Advocate, 12 June (Thursday), available online: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=10970903

Boev, Zlatozar. (2018). A specimen of little bush moa Anomalopteryx didiformis (Owen, 1844), Emeidae Bonaparte, 1854 from the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia. Historia naturalis bulgarica 32: 3-5.

Checklist Committee (OSNZ). (2010). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica (4th ed.). Ornithological Society of New Zealand & Te Papa Press, Wellington. [p. 12]

Checklist Committee (OSNZ). (2022). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand (5th edition). Ornithological Society of New Zealand Occasional Publication No. 1. Wellington: Ornithological Society of New Zealand. [p. 15]

Cloutier, Alison, Sackton, Timothy B., Grayson, Phil, Edwards, Scott V. and Baker, Allan J. (2018). First nuclear genome assembly of an extinct moa species, the little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis). bioRxiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/262816

Cracraft, J. (1976). Journal of morphology, 150(2), 495-526.

Ferreira, Adryan F. L. et al. (2024). Defensins identified through molecular de-extinction. Cell Reports Physical Science 5: 102193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.102193

Forrest, R. M. (1987). A partially mummified skeleton of Anomalopteryx didiformis from Southland. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 17: 399-408.

Gill, B. J. (2022). Thickness histograms of Holocene fossil eggshell fragments indicate diversity and relative abundance of moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes) at North Island sites. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 49(2): 143-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.2021.1970585

Göhlich, Ursula B. (2017). Catalogue of the fossil bird holdings of the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Geology in Munich. Zitteliana 89: 331-349.

Hartree, W. H., Worthy, Trevor H. and Holdaway, Richard N. (1999). A preliminary report on the nesting habits of moas on the East Coast of the North Island. Notornis 46(4): 457-460.

Holdaway, Richard N., Worthy, Trevor H. and Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2001). A working list of breeding bird species of the New Zealand region at first human contact. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 28: 119-187.

Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser.

Huynen L, Gill BJ, Doyle A, Millar CD, Lambert DM. (2014). Identification, Classification, and Growth of Moa Chicks (Aves: Dinornithiformes) from the Genus Euryapteryx. PLoS ONE 9(6): e99929.

Laing, Doug. (2008a). Birdman says moa surviving in the Bay. Hawke's Bay Today, 5 January (Saturday), available online: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=10965106

Laing, Doug. (2008b). First it was moa, now it's emus. Hawke's Bay Today, 8 January (Tuesday), available online: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=10965178

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.

Medway, David G. (1971). Sub-fossil avian remains from the Awakino - Mahoenui area. Notornis 18(3): 218-219.

Millener, P. R. (1982). And then there were twelve: the taxonomic status of Anomalopteryx oweni. Notornis 29(3): 165-170.

Oskam, Charlotte L. et al. (2010). Fossil avian eggshell preserves ancient DNA. Proc. R. Soc. B DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2019

Oskam, Charlotte L. et al. (2012). Ancient DNA analyses of early archaeological sites in New Zealand reveal extreme exploitation of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) at all life stages. Quaternary Science Reviews 52: 41-48. [Abstract]

Owen, Richard. (1883). On  Dinornis (Part XXIII): containing a description of the skeleton of Dinornis parvus, Owen. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 11: 233-256.

Paulin, C. D. (1973). Sub-fossil avian remains from two limestone caves in North Taranaki. Mauri Ora 1: 95-98.

Rawlence, N. J., Wood, J. R., Scofield, R. P., Fraser, C. and Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2012). Soft-tissue specimens from pre-European extinct birds of New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand iFirst 2012: 1-28.

Robertson, H. A., Baird, K. A., Elliott, G. P., Hitchmough, R. A., McArthur, N. J., Makan, T. D., Miskelly, Colin M., O’Donnell, C. F. J., Sagar, P. M., Scofield, R. P., Taylor, G. A. and Michel, P. (2021). Conservation status of birds in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 36. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 43 pp.

Hugh Robertson, John Dowding, Graeme Elliott, Rod Hitchmough, Colin Miskelly, Colin O’Donnell, Ralph Powlesland, Paul Sagar, Paul Scofield, Graeme Taylor. (2013). Conservation status of New Zealand birds, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 4. 22 pp.

Rothschild, Lionel Walter. (1907). Extinct birds: an attempt to write 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. London: Hutchinson & Co. XXIX + 243 pp. [p. 202]

Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]

Seersholm, Frederik V. et al. (2018). Subsistence practices, past biodiversity, and anthropogenic impacts revealed by New Zealand-wide ancient DNA survey. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803573115 [Supplementary information]

Tennyson AJD and Martinson P (2006) Extinct Birds of New Zealand. Te Papa Press, Wellington.

Tennyson, A.J.D. & Martinson, P. 2007. Extinct birds of New Zealand. Revised edition. Wellington: Te Papa Press. vi + 180 pp.

Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.

Williams, P. (1980). Metro cave. A survey of scientific and scenic resources. Report to N.Z. Forest Service.

Wilson, G. (1969). Some avian remains—South Island. New Zealand Speleological Bulletin 4(69): 251-254.

Wood, Jamie R., Vermeulen, Melanie J. et al. (2021). Mid-Holocene coprolites from southern New Zealand provide new insights into the diet and ecology of the extinct little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis). Quaternary Science Reviews 263: 106992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106992 [Abstract]

Wood, Jamie R., Wilmshurst, J. M., Rawlence, N. J., Bonner, K. I., Worthy, Trevor H. et al. (2013). A Megafauna’s Microfauna: Gastrointestinal Parasites of New Zealand’s Extinct Moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes). PLoS ONE 8(2): e57315.

Wood, J. R., Wilmshurst, J. M., Worthy, T. H. and Cooper, A. (2012). First coprolite evidence for the diet of Anomalopteryx didiformis, an extinct forest ratite from New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 36(2): 164-170.

Wood, J. R., Janet M. Wilmshurst, Sarah J. Richardson, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Steven J. Wagstaff, Trevor H. Worthy and Alan Cooper. (2013). Resolving lost herbivore community structure usingcoprolites of four sympatric moa species (Aves: Dinornithiformes). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(42): 16910-16915.

Worthy, Trevor H. (1990). An analysis of the distribution and relative abundance of moa species (Aves: Dinornithiformes). New Zealand Journal of Zoology 17: 213-241.

Worthy, Trevor H. (1991). An overview of the taxonomy, fossil history, biology and extinction of moas. [i]Proceedings of the Twentieth International Ornithologists Congress, Symposium[/i] 6: 555-562.

Worthy, Trevor H. (1993). Fossils of Honeycomb Hill. Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. 56 pp.

Worthy, Trevor H. (1994). Late Quaternary changes in the moa fauna (Aves; Dinornithiformes) on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand. Rec. S. Aust. Mus. 27(2): 125-134.

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