Tagged: flight loss

Out of the fire and into a mad world: How human arrival in New Zealand resulted in a flightless insect - Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

Nic Rawlence • Aug 22, 2021 •

• flight loss,
• Forest Clearance,
• human impact,
• insect,
• New Zealand,
• Stonefly

When most people think of the consequences of humans arriving on an isolated island paradise, it wouldn’t be making an insect flightless. Most people would think about the rapid extinction of biodiversity and environmental modification that inevitably follows human arrival. In Aotearoa New Zealand this includes the sad loss of the giant megafaunal moa, pouakai Haast’s eagle, and … Read More

How to make a flightless bird - Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

Nic Rawlence • May 13, 2019 •

• flight loss,
• Kiwi,
• moa,
• New Zealand,
• ratites

Visit any major museum in Aotearoa New Zealand and you will see a giant moa skeleton on display. The first thing you notice, apart from its enormous size, is the complete lack of wing bones. The answer to how the tūpuna of moa arrived on our shores and subsequently lost their wings has been one of New Zealand’s greatest evolutionary … Read More