Scientists have assembled the first nearly complete genome of the little bush moa, a flightless bird that went extinct soon after Polynesians settled New Zealand in the late 13th century.

In the past, researchers have analyzed the DNA of nine species of bush moa. MORE: Sea otters, once hunted to near extinction, are preventing coastal erosion as their populations grow, study finds.

Members of one moa species, Pachyornis elephantopus, weighed up to 170 kg about 20,000 years ago, at the height of the last ice age, but only 90 kg or so 1,000 years ago.

One suggestion is that the tracks were made by a subadult; moa species like the North Island giant moa (Dinornis novaezealandiae) could reach heights between 2 to 3 meters (6.6 to 9.8 feet), so it ...

Back off, extinct moa. Leaf color and shape may defend a New Zealand tree species from a long-gone giant bird ...

The evolutionary history of New Zealand's many extinct flightless moa has been re-written in the first comprehensive study of more than 260 sub-fossil specimens to combine all known genetic ...

Researchers have found New Zealand's endangered flightless birds are seeking refuge in the locations where six species of moa last lived before going extinct. An international team of researchers ...

The moa, a species of giant flightless birds, went extinct soon after humans arrived in New Zealand during the 13th century Wikimedia Commons Around 1800, an ominous refrain, Ka ngaro ā-moa te ...

New Zealand was once home to giant flightless birds called moa . They had grown accustomed to life without predators. So the arrival of humans in t ...

Researchers have found New Zealand's endangered flightless birds are seeking refuge in the locations where six species of moa last lived before going extinct. An international team of researchers ...

Reconstructing the demise of New Zealand’s extinct moa can help conserve the country’s remaining flightless birds, which are retreating to the same final places - cold, isolated mountaintops.