Eastern moa (Emeus crassus) Description
English: Emeus crassus fossil, Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen.
Magyar: Emeus crassus fosszília, Zoologisk Museum („Zoológiai Múzeum“), Koppenhága.
Date 2009.
Author FunkMonk https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:FunkMonk
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Emeus_crassus.jpg
The eastern moa, Emeus crassus, is an extinct species of moa. When the first specimens were originally described by Richard Owen, they were placed within the genus Dinornis as three different species, but, was later split off into their own genus, Emeus. E. crassus is currently the only species of Emeus, as the other two species, E. casuarinus and E. huttonii are now regarded as synonyms of E. crassus. It has been long suspected that the "species" described as Emeus huttonii and E. crassus were males and females, respectively, of a single species. This has been confirmed by analysis for sex-specific genetic markers of DNA extracted from bone material; the females of E. crassus were 15-25% larger than males. This phenomenon — reverse size dimorphism — is not uncommon amongst ratites, being also very pronounced in kiwis. Order: Dinornithiformes, Family: Emeidae.
Synonyms:
Dinornis crassus Owen, 1846
Syornis crassus (Owen 1846) Hutton 1891
Euryapteryx crassus (Owen 1846) Hutton 1896 non Benham 1910
Dinornis casuarinus Owen, 1846
Dinornis huttonii Owen, 1846 (male)
Emeus huttonii (Owen 1879) Oliver, 1930
Megalapteryx huttoni (Owen 1879) Rothschild 1907
Dinornis major (Hutton, 1875)
Dinornis rheides (Owen, 1851)
Cela rheides (Owen 1850) Rothschild 1907
Dinornis casuarinus Oliver 1846
Emeus casuarinus (Oliver, 1930)
Syornis casuarinus (Owen 1846) Reichenbach 1850
Anomalopteryx casuarina (Owen 1846) Lydekker 1891
Mesopteryx casuarina (Owen 1846) Parker 1895
Meionornis casuarinus (Owen 1846) Hutton 1896
Cela casuarinus (Owen 1846) Rothschild 1907
Mesopteryx didina Hutton 1893 non Dinornis didinus Owen 1883
Meionornis didinus (Hutton 1893) Hutton 1896 non Dinornis didinus Owen 1883
Meionornis Haast, 1874
Mesopteryx Hutton, 1891
Syornis Reichenbach, 1850
