Moa-nalo
Sign in to saveThe moa-nalo are a group of extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that lived on the larger Hawaiian Islands, except Hawaii itself, in the Pacific. They were the major herbivores on most of these islands until they became extinct after human settlement.
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6 sectionsContents
- Description
- Evolution
- Ecology
- See also
- References
- Further reading
The moa-nalo are a group of extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that lived on the larger Hawaiian Islands, except Hawaii itself, in the Pacific. They were the major herbivores on most of these islands until they became extinct after human settlement.
==Description== The moa-nalo (the name literally means "lost fowl"; the plural and the singular are the same) were long unknown to science, having been wiped out before the arrival of James Cook (1778). In the early 1980s, their subfossil remains were discovered in sand dunes on the islands of Molokai and Kauai. Subsequently, bones were found on Maui, Oahu, and Lānai, in lava tubes, lake beds, and sinkholes. They represent four species in three genera so far: Chelychelynechen quassus (turtle-jawed moa-nalo) from Kauai Ptaiochen pau (small-billed moa-nalo) from Maui Thambetochen xanion (O'ahu moa-nalo) from Oahu Thambetochen chauliodous (Maui Nui large-billed moa-nalo) from Maui, Lānai and Molokai (Maui Nui)