Dinornis
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Dinornis
a genus of extinct birds of the order Dinornithiformes. Remains of Dinornis are known from the Pleistocene and Quaternary deposits of New Zealand. There are five species. Members of the genus grew to a height of 3 m and, with the Madagascar Aepyornis, were the largest birds of prey. Their eggs weighed as much as 8 kg. Like the Aepyornis, Dinornis was exterminated by man in the 18th century.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive
Charlotte Oskam and Michael Bunce, Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, were able to isolate mitochondrial DNA from the eggshells of several extinct megafauna, including the
giant moa of New Zealand and a 19,000-year-old emu from Australia.
They then reconstructed the appearance of the stout-legged moa, heavy-footed moa, upland moa and the South Island
giant moa.
Jamie Wood, from the University of Otago, discovered more than 1500 faeces (coprolites) in remote areas across southern New Zealand, primarily from species of the extinct
giant moa, which ranged up to 250 kilograms and three meters in height.
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