moa-nalo

English

An artist's rendering of Thambetochen chauliodous and Ptaiochen pau

Etymology

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Noun

moa-nalo (plural moa-nalos)

  1. Any of several extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that lived on some islands of Hawaii from the late Pleistocene until sometime before 1778.
    • 1994, Storrs L. Olson, Helen F. James, “Descriptions of Thirty-Two New Species of Birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part I. Non-Passeriforms”, in E. Alison Kay, editor, A Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands: Selected Readings II, page 451:
      All of the raptors would have exploited rails, young ibises, and perhaps young moa-nalos, although the eagle was the only one capable of taking adult ibises or moa-nalos.
    • 1996, Amoco Oil Company, Sixth North American Paleontological Convention: Abstracts of Papers, page 194,
      We obtained a collection of coprolites from Thambetochen chauliodous, one of four species of flightless Hawaiian waterfowl known collectively as moa-nalos.
    • 2006, Guy A. Baldassarre, Eric G. Bolen, Waterfowl Ecology and Management, 2nd edition, page 41:
      Moa-nalos did not occur on Hawaii, which was occupied by another herbivore, the Giant Hawaiian Goose.
    • 2012, Michael Heads, Molecular Panbiogeography of the Tropics, page 328:
      The moa-nalos are a clade of ducks known from subfossils on the main Hawaiian islands.

Derived terms

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