Euryapteryx
a.k.a.‭ ‬Coastal Moa,‭ ‬Broad Billed moa,‭ ‬Stout Legged Moa.

Name: Euryapteryx ‭(‬Broad wing‭)‬.
Phonetic: Yu-rip-teh-riks.
Named By: Richard Owen‭ ‬-‭ ‬1846.
Synonyms: Cela curtus,‭ ‬Celeus curtus,‭ ‬Dinornis curtus,‭ ‬Dinornis gravis,‭ ‬Euryapteryx exilis,‭ ‬Emeus gravipes,‭ ‬Euryapteryx gravis,‭ ‬Zelornis exilis.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Aves,‭ ‬Paleognathae,‭ ‬Dinornithiformes,‭ ‬Emeidae.
Species: E.‭ ‬curtus‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Up to one meter.
Known locations: New Zealand,‭ ‬including North Island,‭ ‬South Island and Stewart Island.
Time period: Pleistocene to Holocene,‭ ‬probably extinct by about‭ ‬1400-1500AD.
Fossil representation: Several individuals,‭ ‬including mummified remains.




       The Euryapteryx genus of moa can be a bit confusing since it is actually known by three more common names,‭ ‬all of which reveal a little about this genus.‭ ‬The first name is the Coastal Moa,‭ ‬so named because of the abundant remains of this genus in coastal locations,‭ ‬though this is not to say that Euryapteryx never ventured further inland as some other moa genera are known from both inland and coastal locations.‭ ‬Euryapteryx is also known as the Broad Billed Moa because of the width of the bill.‭ ‬This may have been a response to feeding upon certain plants where a broad bill was better for cropping,‭ ‬and may indicate that in life Euryapteryx were not particularly selective browsers.‭ ‬Finally,‭ ‬the name Stout Legged‭ (‬sometimes spelled as just one word‭) ‬Moa is a reference‭ ‬to the robust build of the legs.
       Like with other moa,‭ ‬female Euryapteryx were much larger than males,‭ ‬as much as twice as large.‭ ‬This is called reverse dimorphism since males are usually larger than females,‭ ‬though animal species where females are larger than males are not unknown,‭ ‬particularly within the ratite birds which the moa belong to.‭ ‬The southern populations of Euryapteryx also seem to have grown slightly larger than those in the north,‭ ‬perhaps as a response to differing environmental conditions.
       At the time of writing there is only one species of Euryapteryx recognised as valid.‭ ‬This is because of a‭ ‬2012‭ ‬DNA study which discovered that the species E.‭ ‬gravis was actually synonymous with the type species E.‭ ‬curtus.

       Care should be taken not to confuse the moa genus Euryapteryx with Eurypterus,‭ ‬a genus of sea scorpion from the Silurian period.




Further reading
-‭ ‬The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography‭ ‬-‭ ‬Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences‭ ‬106‭ (‬49‭)‬:‭ ‬20646‭ ‬-‭ ‬M.‭ ‬Bunce,‭ ‬T.‭ ‬H.‭ ‬Worthy,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬J.‭ ‬Phillips,‭ ‬R.‭ ‬N.‭ ‬Holdaway,‭ ‬E.‭ ‬Willerslev,‭ ‬J.‭ ‬Haile,‭ ‬B.‭ ‬Shapiro,‭ ‬R.‭ ‬P.‭ ‬Scofield,‭ ‬A.‭ ‬Drummond,‭ ‬P.‭ ‬J.‭ ‬J.‭ ‬Kamp‭ & ‬A.‭ ‬Cooper‭ ‬-‭ ‬2009.
-‭ ‬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 ‬-‭ ‬T.‭ ‬H.‭ ‬Worthy‭ & ‬R.‭ ‬P.‭ ‬Scofield‭ ‬-‭ ‬2012.

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