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44-456: D. novaezealandiae North Island giant moa D. robustus South Island giant moa The giant moa ( Dinornis ) is an extinct genus of birds belonging to the moa family. As with other moa , it was a member of the order Dinornithiformes . It was endemic to New Zealand . Two species of Dinornis are considered valid, the North Island giant moa ( Dinornis novaezealandiae ) and
88-487: A lowered posture, standing upright, it would have been the tallest bird ever to exist, with a height estimated up to 3.6 metres (12 ft). It was a ratite and a member of the order Dinornithiformes . The Dinornithiformes were flightless birds with a sternum but without a keel . They also had a distinctive palate . The origin of ratites is becoming clearer, as it is now believed that early ancestors of these birds were able to fly. From such fossil evidence it
132-479: A preferred moa size for hunting. Though geographically restricted to the North Island, the diversity of habitat that the moa could survive in has dismantled theories that its extinction could have been a result of habitat loss. Meanwhile, radiocarbon data shows that the vast spread of the highly mobile Māori people across the country, highly correlates with the time upon which moa populations were plummeting. This
176-610: A rare find in archaeology, however the abundance of fragments suggest that when fresh, the egg of the Dinornis novaezealandiae is estimated to have weighed over 3 kg and 190 x 150mm. There is a single, largely intact egg (197 x 151 mm) attributed to this species, from a rock shelter in the Mangawhitikau Valley, Waitomo. Ancient DNA results reveal that surfaces of the outer shell of eggs that belonged to Dinornis novaezealandiae yielded DNA from males only. This indicates that
220-627: A special nest that would support their body weight in some way. Some cultural depictions of moa focus on how the moa was best cooked and enjoyed as a food, such as, He koromiko te wahie i taona ai te moa (“The moa was cooked with the wood of the koromiko”). Other depictions, however, focus on the development and fate of their extinction. This is because the moa was used as a metaphor for the Māori people to express fears of their own extinction that developed; as illness, disease and deforestation, by European settlers, posed severe threat to their survival. This
264-616: A variety of colours and patterns. Senior competitions should use light coloured balls to allow spectators to see the ball more easily. The football used in rugby league is known as "international size" or "size 5" and is approximately 27 cm (11 in) long and 60 cm (24 in) in circumference at its widest point. Smaller-sized balls are used for junior versions of the game, such as "Mini" and " Mod ". A full size ball weighs between 383 and 440 g (13.5 and 15.5 oz). Rugby league footballs are slightly more pointed than rugby union footballs and larger than American footballs. Both
308-490: A weight of about 400 grams. It is often confused with some balls of similar dimensions used in American , Canadian and Australian football. William Gilbert started making footballs for the neighbouring Rugby School in 1823. The balls had an inner-tube made of a pig's bladder. Both men owned boot and shoe making businesses located close to Rugby school. In 1870, Richard Lindon introduced rubber inner-tubes and because of
352-685: A wide range of habitats from coastal to alpine. It is possible that individual moa would have moved from environment to environment with the changing seasons. It has been long suspected that several species of moa constituted males and females, respectively. This has been confirmed by analysis for sex-specific genetic markers of DNA extracted from bone material. For example, prior to 2003 there were three species of Dinornis recognised: South Island giant moa ( D. robustus ), North Island giant moa ( D. novaezealandiae ) and slender moa ( D. struthioides ). However, DNA showed that all D. struthioides were in fact males, and all D. robustus were females. Therefore,
396-405: Is 28–30 cm (11–12 in) long and 58–62 cm (23–24 in) in circumference at its widest point. It weighs 410–460 g (14–16 oz) and is inflated to 65.7–68.8 kPa (9.5–10.0 psi). In 1980, traditional leather-encased balls, which were prone to water-logging, were replaced with balls encased in synthetic waterproof materials. The Gilbert Synergie was the match ball of
440-527: Is also theories that moa defecation and their herbivorous diet may have contributed to nutrient spreading and cycling, though this is not easy to validate. However, large dung from the Dinornis novaezealandie would have likely nurtured the existence of dung beetles and dung mosses ( Splachnaceae ) in the North Island. Some of the dung mosses may have included those of the Tayloria genus. The enormous, flightless birds caused large paths to be cleared through
484-1044: Is also theories that with such a diverse range of plants restricted to the North Island, if coprolites and gizzard content for the Dinornis novaezealandiae are found, this would likely expand the number of plant taxa known to have been eaten by moa. Research into moa beak shapes and jaw muscle size provide some evidence for the diverse diets of moa. From such research it has been found that large Dinornis browsed primarily on coarse twigs. Further speculation suggests that in order to ferment their plant diet in accordance with their large body size, moa such as D. novaezealandiae may have evolved to have long intestines. New Zealand plants and moa were in co-evolution. Moa have been found to filiramulate growth habit in plants such as divarication, heteroblasty , deciduousness, spines or spine like structures (enlarged stinging hairs), leaf loss and photosynthetic stems, mimicry and reduced visual apparency, tough and fibrous leaves, distasteful compounds and low nutrient status. Though moa ate flowers, it
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#1733085860215528-543: Is because it is believed that their extinction was at least in part due Polynesian dogs eating moa chicks. Rugby ball A rugby ball is an elongated ellipsoidal ball used in both codes of rugby football . Its measurements and weight are specified by World Rugby and the Rugby League International Federation , the governing bodies for both codes, rugby union and rugby league respectively. The rugby ball has an oval shape, four panels and
572-676: Is believed that the early flying ratites originated in the Northern Hemisphere and flew to the Southern Hemisphere . This movement of flying ancestors is believed to be the cause of the distribution of ratites across the Southern Hemisphere. The Dinornis novaezealandiae has been described as a bird that was “two-legged, tailless, wingless [and] clad in woolly fibres”. It had, “long, shaggy hair-like feathers up to 18 cm long”. Feather and skin fragments indicate that all but
616-444: Is impossible to know exactly how Dinornis reproduced and raised young, assumptions can be made from extant ratites . The larger females may have competed to mate with the most desirable males who themselves were likely to have been extremely territorial. Eggs may have been laid in communal nests in sand dunes, or by individual birds in sheltered environments such as hollow trees or by rocks. The female would have had little to do with
660-468: Is seen in sayings such as Huna I te huna a te moa ("Hidden as the moa hid") and "Dead as the Moa", as well as depictions of moa whereby Māori describe it as “having a human face and living in a cave,”. Whilst hunting Dinornis novaezealandie was largely for consumption, findings have also shown that Dinornis bones were used to make many one-piece fish-hooks. The disappearance and eventually extinction of
704-434: Is unlikely that they contributed to pollination processes. On the contrary, this would have been a more destructive process than other impacts the Dinornis novaezealandiae may have had on the North Island's ecology. The deep, longstanding interconnectedness between plants and moa means that the consequences of the extinction of the Dinornis novaezealandiae may still be largely unknown. There are theories that due to
748-409: Is used as backing material to hold the ball's oval shape, along with additional material for grips to enhance performance. The ball is stitched with polyester thread and coated with wax to make it more water-resistant. The rugby ball used in rugby union is a prolate spheroid essentially elliptical in profile. Modern footballs are manufactured in a variety of colors and patterns. A regulation football
792-425: The 2007 Rugby World Cup . Most of the professional leagues use Adidas , Gilbert , Mitre or Webb Ellis manufactured balls. Rugby league is played with a prolate spheroid shaped football which is inflated with nitrogen. A referee will stop play immediately if the ball does not meet the requirements of size and shape. Traditionally made of brown leather, modern footballs are synthetic and manufactured in
836-471: The D. novaezealandiae a rarity that are only found in remote, undisturbed and rarely visited sites. This moa lived on the North Island of New Zealand , and lived in the lowlands ( shrublands , grasslands , dunelands, and forests). The Dinornis was a widely represented genus of moa in the North Island of New Zealand. The habitat of the Dinornis novaezealandiae is thought to have remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years. This
880-411: The Dinornis due to the similarities that have been drawn between the time taken to reach complete maturity of hindlimbs (5 years), as well as the time upon which tarsals commence fusion with adjacent long bones (4 years). Due to extensive land clearance for agriculture during the nineteenth and twentieth century, most land surface containing moa bones was lost throughout New Zealand, making the bones of
924-429: The Dinornis robustus ( South Island giant moa ) due to the similarities in morphology and the landscapes that they roamed. This would suggest that like the Dinornis robustus , the Dinornis novaezealandie diet would consist of forest trees, especially Southern Beech (Nothofagaceae), seeds and leaves of small shrubs in forest areas. In non-forest areas there is speculation that they may have grazed on herbs. There
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#1733085860215968-567: The South Island giant moa ( Dinornis robustus ). In addition, two further species (new lineage A and lineage B) have been suggested based on distinct DNA lineages. Dinornis may have been the tallest bird that ever lived, with the females of the largest species standing 3.6 m (12 ft) tall, and one of the most massive, weighing 230–240 kg (510–530 lb) or 278 kg (613 lb) in various estimates. Feather remains are reddish brown and hair -like, and apparently covered most of
1012-483: The 'most fragile of all avian eggs measured to date'. It is possible that such fragile eggs resulted in the male moa adapting to become smaller than the females to reduce the risk of crushing the eggs. However, it is possible that the male moa would curl themselves around the eggs rather than sitting on them directly. Given the size of the eggs, and the incubation period, as soon as giant moa chicks hatched they would have been able to see, run and feed themselves. Prior to
1056-513: The arrival of humans, the giant moa had an ecologically stable population in New Zealand for at least 40,000 years. The giant moa, along with other moa genera , were wiped out by Polynesian settlers , who hunted it for food. All taxa in this genus were extinct by 1500 in New Zealand. It is generally accepted that the Māori still hunted them at the beginning of the fifteenth century, although some models suggest extinction had already taken place by
1100-486: The ball, the bladder or the pump. By the 1880s there were several manufacturers of 'footballs' in England all using the same process. The size and shape of the ball was not written into the rules until 1892, when it was determined as follows: - Length 11 to 11 1/4 inches - Circumference (end on) 30 to 31 inches - Circumference (in width) 25 1/2 to 26 inches - Weight: 12 to 13 ounces - Hand sewn with not less than 8 stitches to
1144-517: The body except the lower legs and most of the head (plus a small portion of the neck below the head). While no feathers have been found from moa chicks, it is likely that they were speckled or striped to camouflage them from Haast's Eagles . The feet were large and powerful, and could probably deliver a powerful kick if threatened. The birds had long, strong necks and broad sharp beaks that would have allowed them to eat vegetation from subalpine herbs through to tree branches. In relation to its body,
1188-490: The bone findings of juvenile Dinornis , an adult male has been estimated to weigh between 55 and 88 kg whilst females between 78 and 249 kg. The growth and development of Dinornis long bones, compared to that of other ratites such as the Ostrich , has been found to be much slower. The North Island brown kiwi , that does not reach adult body mass until 12 months, is viewed as a more appropriate developmental analog for
1232-506: The eggs once they had been laid while the male would have incubated the egg for up to three months before it hatched. Dinornis eggs were enormous, as large as a rugby ball , and around 80 times the volume of a chicken's egg. However, despite their size, Dinornis eggs were extremely thin, with D. novaezealandiae's eggshells being around 1.06 millimeters (0.04 inches) thick and D. robustus' eggshells being 1.4 millimeters (0.06 inches) thick. As such, Dinornis eggs have been estimated to be
1276-400: The fragile eggs successfully since the possibility of breakage is many times greater than that of any other bird. For this reason, it is unlikely that larger moa, such as the D. novaezealandiae , would have been able to incubate their eggs using the same contact method that is practiced by almost all birds. Whilst the exact structure remains unclear, it is more likely they would have formed
1320-535: The head was small, with a pointed, short, flat and somewhat curved beak. The North Island giant moa tended to be larger than the South Island giant moa. The cladogram below follows a 2009 analysis by Bunce et al. : Megalapteryx didinus D. robustus D. novaezealandiae P. australis P. elephantopus P. geranoides Anomalopteryx didiformis Emeus crassus Euryapteryx curtus Dinornis were very adaptable and were present in
1364-476: The human environmental impact of fires made by the Māori people also contributed to habitat alterations. Based on recent knowledge, the Kahikatea-Pukatea-tawa forest, Waikato , was home to the majority of Dinornis novaezealandiae . However, bone discoveries also reveal it to have been in nearby places, such as Opito, Auckland , where it was the predominant genus of moa. Dinornis novaezealandie
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1408-497: The inch In 1892 the RFU endorsed ovalness as the compulsory shape. The gradual flattening of the ball continued over the years. The introduction of synthetic footballs over the traditional leather balls, in both rugby codes, was originally governed by weather conditions. If the playing surface was wet, the synthetic ball was used, as it didn't absorb water and become heavy. Eventually, the leather balls were phased out completely. Polyester
1452-453: The landscape. It was observed in the Poukawa region that these would often lead to freshwater springs and the bottom of rocky cliffs; where they would tend to nest and roost. Once this observation was made these paths became particularly useful for humans when searching for fresh water sources and were continued to be used for these purposes long after the moa's extinction. Whole moa eggs are
1496-443: The legs were fully feathered and that the wings of this bird were not visible. Their feathers were brown, sometimes with pale edging. Research shows that the D. novaezealandiae displayed a large reversed sexual dimorphism whereby the females were much larger than males, estimated to have had up to twice the body mass of males. Dinornis had long slim, elongated bones compared to other moa species. Using algorithms derived from
1540-522: The males were the likely incubators of eggs. Findings also show that the inside of these eggs, and the remains on the outer surface, matched female DNA, which is thought to be from the egg laying process. The eggs of Dinornis have also been shown to be more susceptible to breakage than any of the 3,434 avian species measured to date. Though the male D. novaezealandiae were lighter than females, questions have been raised as to how birds of such weight, even those that were smaller, could manage to incubate
1584-491: The middle of the 14th century. Although some birds became extinct due to farming , for which the forests were cut and burned down and the ground was turned into arable land , the giant moa had been extinct for 300 years prior to the arrival of European settlers. Dinornis novaezealandiae The North Island giant moa ( Dinornis novaezealandiae ) is an extinct moa in the genus Dinornis , known in Māori as kuranui . Even though it might have walked with
1628-486: The moa occurred around the 15th c, 200 years after human settlement in New Zealand. Before the settlement of humans, Dinornis novaezealandiae had few natural predators, meaning there was little threat that the species would become extinct. However, after the arrival of the Māori people and their human activities of hunting and fires, humans soon became a threat to all species of moa, including Dinornis novaezealandiae , as it has been found that there did not appear to be
1672-463: The moa's longstanding prevalence in New Zealand's landscape, they would have come to form certain roles in New Zealand's ecology. One example that has been proposed is the possibility of their ability to spread seeds. This stems from findings in moa specimen examinations that show different species of fungi that moa ingested, such as Cortinarius , because this fungus is known in particular to be associated with higher spore dispersal by birds. There
1716-424: The pig's bladder was. Around 1862, Richard Lindon was desperate to find a replacement for the pig’s bladder and used an India rubber bladder instead. India rubber was too tough to inflate by mouth and so having been inspired by air syringes, he created a large brass air pump to inflate his rugby balls. Lindon also claimed to invent the rugby ball and its distinctive oval shape but didn't patent his design for either
1760-401: The pliability of rubber, the shape gradually changed from a sphere to an egg. Lindon and Bernardo Solano started making balls for Rugby School out of hand stitched, leather casings and pigs' bladders. The rugby ball's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig's bladder, although early balls were more plum-shape than oval . The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large
1804-512: The three species of Dinornis were reclassified as two species, one each formerly occurring in New Zealand 's North Island ( D. novaezealandiae ) and South Island ( D. robustus ); robustus however, comprises three distinct genetic lineages and may eventually be classified as many species. Dinornis seems to have had the most pronounced sexual dimorphism of all moa, with females being up to twice as tall and three times as heavy as males. While it
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1848-455: Was in part due to the bird's inability to fly, as this restricted its movement between islands and therefore confined the species to the North Island of New Zealand. Shifts in this moa's habitat have been noted during particular times of changing climates and vegetative zones and in reaction to the influence of anthropogenic factors such as the introduction of Polynesian rat ( Rattus exulans ) and Polynesian dog ( Canis familiaris ). Later,
1892-407: Was one of the largest herbivores in New Zealand's terrestrial ecosystem. Their diet is described as diverse, consuming a wide range of plant taxa. It is difficult to be certain of the exact diet that this species of moa would have eaten, as coprolites and gizzard content for this species of moa have not yet been found. However, studies propose that the diet would have been similar to that of
1936-440: Was the case across all geographical areas, not just those that were being deforested, but also other areas where human activities, such as hunting, were carried out. Though human settlement and hunting activities played the most significant role, there are some factors that may have inhibited Dinornis novaezealandiae abilities to reproduce at the rate that they were being culled, such as the introduction of Polynesian dogs . This
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