A 2009 genetic study showed thatEuryapteryx curtus andEuryapteryx gravis were synonyms.[7] A 2010 study explained size differences among them as sexual dimorphism.[8] A 2012 morphological study interpreted them as subspecies instead.[9]E. c. curtus, thenominate subspecies, was labeled the "coastal moa",[1] whileE. c. gravis was the "stout-legged moa".[2]
Thecladogram below follows a 2009 analysis by Bunceet al.:[10]
It was aratite and a member of thelesser moa family. The ratites are flightless birds with asternum without akeel. They also have a distinctivepalate. The origin of these birds is becoming clearer as it is now believed that early ancestors of these birds were able to fly and flew to the southern areas that they have been found in.[11]
It was one of the most widespreas moa species, inhabiting open areas.[6] These moa lived in both theNorth and theSouth Islands of New Zealand, and onStewart Island. Its habitat was in the lowlands (duneland, forest, shrubland, and grassland).[11]
As of 2006, half of all complete or mostly complete moa eggs in museum collections are likely broad-billed moa specimens.[12] Of the specimens traditionally given the nameEuryapteryx gravis, the eggs has an average length of 205mm and width of 143mm, while the group traditionally assigned to the nameEuryapteryx curtus had an average length of 122mm and width of 94mm.[12] The species presumably went extinct for the same reasons as other moa - overhunting by theMāori (who called them "moa hakahaka")[2] upon their arrival in the 14th century.
^Worthy, T. H.; Scofield, R. P. (2012). "Twenty-first century advances in knowledge of the biology of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes): a new morphological analysis and moa diagnoses revised".New Zealand Journal of Zoology.39 (2):87–153.doi:10.1080/03014223.2012.665060.S2CID83768608.
^abDavies, S. J. J. F. (2003). "Moas". In Hutchins, Michael (ed.).Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 8: Birds I: Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.ISBN0-7876-5784-0.
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