The extinct Moa is believed to be the largest ever ………what?
Largest organisms the giant moa ("Dinornis maximus"), part of the moa family of New Zealand that went extinct around 1500 AD. This particular species of moa stood up to tall, but weighed about half as much as a large elephant bird or mihirung due to its comparatively slender frame. The heaviest bird ever capable of flight was "Argentavis magnificens", the largest member of the now extinct family Teratornithidae, found in Miocene-aged fossil beds of Argentina, with a wingspan up to , a length of up to , a height on the ground of up to and a body weight of at least
Moa necessarily mean there was no speciation between the arrival 60 Mya and the basal split 5.8 Mya, but the fossil record is lacking and is it most likely that early moa lineages existed but became extinct before the basal split 5.8 Mya. The presence of Miocene-aged species certainly suggests that moa diversification began before the split between "Megalapteryx" and the other taxa. The Oligocene Drowning Maximum event, which occurred about 22 Mya, when only 18% of present-day New Zealand was above sea level, is very important in the moa radiation. Because the basal moa split occurred so recently (5.8 Mya),