Crested moa
species of bird (fossil)
The crested moa (Pachyornis australis) is an extinct species of moa. It is one of the 9 known species of moa to have existed.
Moa are grouped together with emus, ostriches, kiwi, cassowaries, rheas, and tinamous in the clade Palaeognathae. Some of the species of this group are flightless and lacks a keel on their sternum. The name crested moa is due to pits being found in their skulls, suggesting they had crests of long feathers. These cranial pits are also found occasionally in Dinornis, Anomalopteryx, and other Pachyornis species.
Description
The crested moa weighed around 75 kg (165 lb). The crested moa was smaller than the heavy-footed moa (Pachyornis elephantopus) and their bones are sometimes mistaken for those of P. elephantopus due to their similar structure.
Almost nothing is known about the feather pits on the crested moa's skull. It is likely the feathers were used in courtship rituals or to challenge rivals, but no feathers have been found, so their colour or size can only be speculated at.
“Crested moa” enters the record as species of bird (fossil). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Crested, species and bird can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5184577. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Crested moa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.