Flightless bird more species of flightless birds (including the kiwi, several species of penguins, the takahe, the weka, the moa, and several other extinct species) than any other such location. One reason is that until the arrival of humans roughly a thousand years ago, there were no large land predators in New Zealand; the main predators of flightless birds were larger birds. Ratites belong to the superorder Palaeognathae birds, which include the volant tinamou, and are believed to have evolved flightlessness independently multiple times within their own group. Some birds evolved flightlessness in response to the absence of predators, for example on
Marine weather forecasting north down to equator. The National Hurricane Center's area of responsibility includes Southern Hemisphere areas in the Pacific down to 18.5 degrees south eastward of the 120th meridian west. South of the equation, the NWS Honolulu Forecast Office forecasts southward to the 25th parallel south between the 160th meridian east and the 120th meridian west. Marine weather forecasting Marine weather forecasting is the process by which mariners and meteorological organizations attempt to forecast future weather conditions over the Earth's oceans. Mariners have had rules of thumb regarding the navigation around tropical cyclones for many years, dividing a storm into halves