Abstract The species diversity in the family Emeidae of the extinct New Zealand moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) remains problematic and unresolved because so far there has been little integration of genetic, morphometric, and geographical information underpinned by solid radiocarbon chronologies. Here we re-investigate variation within the genus Euryapteryx using ancient mitochondrial genetics and morphometric analysis of leg bone lengths (femur, tibiotarsus, and tarsometarsus) from samples spanning the entire geographical range of the genus, in geological age from the late Pleistocene to their extinction in the past 1000 years. Our analyses revealed disparity between the results of genetics and morphometrics. We identified geographically distinct phylogenetic lineages, whose distributions were unrelated to morphometric patterns. The morphometric results do not support the current recognition of North and South Island subspecies but are instead consistent with the geographical and climatic histories of populations. This highlights the value of population-level morphometrics in assessing phenotypic response to changing environments, independent of descent. Furthermore, our results underline the value of the unique evolutionary system provided by New Zealand moa in separating the effects of climate, topography, tectonics, and volcanism on the evolution of large vertebrates.
Holdaway et al. (Thu,) studied this question.