Crested moa
| Crested moa Temporal range: Late Holocene | |
|---|---|
| Pachyornis australis bones in Ngārua Caves | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Infraclass: | Palaeognathae |
| Order: | †Dinornithiformes |
| Family: | †Emeidae |
| Genus: | †Pachyornis |
| Species: | †P. australis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Pachyornis australis (Oliver, 1949) | |
| Synonyms | |
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List
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The crested moa (Pachyornis australis) is an extinct species of moa. It is one of the 9 known species of moa to have existed.
Moa are grouped together with emus, ostriches, kiwi, cassowaries, rheas, and tinamous in the clade Palaeognathae. Some of the species of this group are flightless and lacks a keel on their sternum. The name crested moa is due to pits being found in their skulls, suggesting they had crests of long feathers. These cranial pits are also found occasionally in Dinornis, Anomalopteryx, and other Pachyornis species.