Flightless - Page 2 of 2

New Zealand’s unique bird life evolved in isolation over millions of years. The image, created at the end of the 19th century, shows a hunting scene of moas. (© Joseph Smit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

News

27. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

In the Footsteps of Moas: Where New Zealand’s Flightless Birds Find Refuge

The settlement of the Pacific Islands by humans led to rapid waves of extinction for many animal species, whose dynamics are difficult to reconstruct. Among the affected species were the wingless moas, which were only found in New Zealand. These often massive birds went extinct in the 14th or 15th

Himalayan quail (Ophrysia superciliosa) or mountain quail by Gould

Painting of a pair of Himalayan quails by John Gould from 1883. Females are smaller and lighter; males have darker feathers, a white forehead, and white spots near the eyes. The genus name is derived from Ophrys, which refers to the eyebrow. (© John Gould, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

18. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Himalayan Quail

A mysterious bird The Himalayan quail is one of the mysteries of avian fauna. It was last conclusively sighted, in 1876, and all subsequent search expeditions were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, many scientists believe it could have survived to this day. The IUCN still lists the bird from the pheasant family (Phasianidae)

Buschmoa-Genom rekonstruiert (Anomaloptery didiformis)

The bush moa is the smallest moa species known to date. It was only slightly larger than today’s turkeys and weighed around 30 kilograms. The flightless bird went extinct about 500 to 600 years ago with the settlement of New Zealand. (© Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

News

25. May 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Deciphered Bush Moa genome provides insights into New Zealand’s extinct avian world

A team of evolutionary biologists has reconstructed the nearly complete genome of the bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis), a flightless bird from New Zealand that went extinct 500 to 600 years ago. Researchers from Harvard University, East Carolina University, Osaka University, and the University of Toronto sequenced ancient DNA from a

The newly discovered scarab beetle species Semanopterus kingstoni was named after entomologist Tim Kingston, who had collected the only known specimen in 1979. (© Reid, Chris & TEES, NATALIE. (2023). A new, but possibly extinct, species of Semanopterus Hope, 1847 from Lord Howe Island, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae). Zootaxa. 5306. 563-570. 10.11646/zootaxa.5306.5.4.)

News

5. December 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

New beetle species with unique trait discovered on island

Australian researchers recently discovered a previously unknown species of scarab beetle (Scarabaeidae) in the insect collection of the Australian Museum in Sydney. The specimen in question, a female, was collected on January 30, 1979 on Lord Howe, a small island of only 14 square kilometers in the southwest Pacific. The

According to ornithologists Olson and Jouventin, the extinct Amsterdam duck was similar to the still extant, likewise flightless Auckland teal (Anas aucklandica; see image). The illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans appeared in Buller's Birds of New Zealand (1988). (© John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

13. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Amsterdam duck

Barely larger than a thrush Both Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul are more than 3,000 kilometers away from continents. Nevertheless—or perhaps precisely because of this—the two islands were frequently visited by early seafarers and the animals that traveled with them, so that all endemic birds there had already been wiped

Bones of the North Island giant moa at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. (© Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

26. February 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

North Island giant moa

The second-largest moa species This moa species inhabited scrub, grassland and dune landscapes as well as forests on New Zealand’s North Island. The North Island giant moa is considered the second-largest moa species. The largest species is the South Island giant moa, which was endemic to New Zealand’s South Island.