Dinornithiformes Skull & Leg Bone Replicas are museum quality polyurethane resin castings. Made in USA. Moa Replicas
Dinornithiformes or Moa are an extinct group of flightless birds formerly endemic to New Zealand.
The Dinornithiformes or Moa is a species of moa from the lesser moa family. The heavy-footed moa was widespread only in the South Island of New Zealand, and its habitat was the lowlands (shrublands, dunelands, grasslands, and forests).
The Moa were ratites, flightless birds with a sternum without a keel. They also have a distinctive palate. 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 in which they have been found.
The Dinornithiformes or Moa was about 5.9 ft. tall, and weighed as much as 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 have an average length of 226mm and a width of 158mm, making these the largest moa eggs behind the single South Island giant moa egg specimen.
The heavy-footed moa was named as Dinornis elephantopus by Richard Owen in 1856 from leg bones found by Walter Mantell at Awamoa, near Oamaru, and given by him to the Natural History Museum, London. Bones from multiple birds were used to make a full articulated skeleton.
The Dinornithiformes or Moa was found only in the South Island of New Zealand. Their range covered much of the eastern side of the island, with a northern and southern variant of the species.
They were a primarily lowland species, preferring dry and open habitats such as grasslands, shrublands and dry forests.
The heavy-footed moa’s only real predator (before the arrival of humans and non-native placental mammals) was the Haast’s eagle.
Recent evidence from coprolites has shown that they also hosted several groups of host-specific parasites, including nematode worms.
In 2007 Jamie Wood described the gizzard contents of a heavy-footed moa for the first time. They found 21 plant taxa which included Hebe leaves, various seeds and mosses as well as a large amount of twigs and wood, some of which were of a considerable size.
This supports the earlier idea that the Dinornithiformes or Moa was adapted to consume tough vegetation, but it also shows that it had a varied diet and could eat most plant products, including wood.
