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If this estimate is correct, its increase in weight by ten to fifteen times is an exceptionally rapid weight increase.
The suggested increase in the average weight of Haast's eagle over that period would therefore represent the largest, fastest evolutionary increase in average weight of any known vertebrate species. Haast's eagle was one of the largest known true raptors. In length and weight, Haast's eagle was even larger than the largest living vultures. Another giant eagle from the fossil record, Amplibuteo woodwardi , is more recently and scantly-described but rivalled the Haast's in at least the aspect of total length.
A comparison with living eagles of the Australasian region resulted in estimated masses in Haast's eagles of They had a relatively short wingspan for their size. It is estimated that the grown female typically spanned up to 2. Several of the largest extant Old World vultures , if not in mean mass or other linear measurements, probably exceed Haast's eagle in average wingspan as well.
Short wings may have aided Haast's eagles when hunting in the dense scrubland and forests of New Zealand. Haast's eagle has sometimes been portrayed incorrectly as having evolved toward flightlessness , but this is not so. Rather it represents a departure from the mode of its ancestors' soaring flight , toward higher wing loading and the species probably had very broad wings. Some wing and leg remains of Haast's eagles permit direct comparison with living eagles.
The harpy eagle Harpia harpyja , the Philippine eagle Pithecophaga jefferyi , and the Steller's sea eagle Haliaeetus pelagicus are the largest and most powerful living eagles, and the first two also have a similarly reduced relative wing-length as an adaptation to forest-dwelling. The talons of the Haast's eagle were similar in length to those of the harpy eagle , with a front-left talon length of 4. The strong legs and massive flight muscles of these eagles would have enabled the birds to take off with a jumping start from the ground, despite their great weight.
This characteristic would compensate for the reduction in wing area by providing additional lift. Haast's eagles preyed on large, flightless bird species, including the moa , which was up to fifteen times the weight of the eagle. Until recent human colonisation that introduced rodents and cats, the only placental land mammals found on the islands of New Zealand were three species of bat. Birds occupied or dominated all major niches in the New Zealand animal ecology.
Moa were grazers, functionally similar to deer or cattle in other habitats, and Haast's eagles were the hunters who filled the same niche as top-niche mammalian predators, such as tigers or lions. One study estimated the total population at 3, to 4, breeding pairs, so the Haast's eagle would have been very vulnerable to changes in the number of moa. A noted explorer and surveyor , Charles Edward Douglas , claims in his journals that he had an encounter with two raptors of immense size in Landsborough River valley probably during the s , and that he shot and ate them; [24] but they may have been Eyles's harriers.
Thomas P. We make our match suggestions with long-term love in mind, meaning that we only show you profiles we think will be truly compatible. Join us today! Tauranga dating: finding love in the land of plenty More articles Smart is sexy: how your love for books could score you a date Dating in your 30s: bring lasting love into your life Our gay dating app — the ideal tool for finding a partner Rugby and romance: how being an All Blacks fan might get you a date! Retrieved 27 October MerchiCymru , Namespaces Article Talk.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Extinct species of bird. Temporal range: Pleistocene to Late Holocene. Conservation status. Haast , Retrieved 27 October Thomas P. May Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Quaternary Science Reviews. Bibcode : QSRv.. New Zealand Geographic 4. Retrieved 23 August The Secret Life of Birds: Who they are and what they do.
Penguin Books Limited. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. New Zealand Institute. New Zealand Geographic : PLOS Biology. The identity of the fossil raptor of the genus Amplibuteo Aves: Accipitridae from the Quaternary of Cuba.
Caribbean Journal of Science, 40 1 , December Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 January The Sixth Extinction.
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