![]() Haast's eagle has sometimes been portrayed incorrectly as having evolved toward flightlessness, but this is not so as evidence that it flew is very strong. Short wings may have aided Haast's eagles when hunting in the dense scrubland and forests of New Zealand. 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. chrysaetos), martial eagle ( Polemaetus bellicosus), white-tailed eagle ( Haliaeetus albicilla) and Steller's sea eagle ( Haliaeetus pelagicus) are all known to exceed 2.5 m in wingspan. This wingspan is broadly similar to the larger range of female size in some extant eagles: the wedge-tailed eagle ( Aquila audax), golden eagle ( A. It is estimated that the grown female typically spanned up to 2.6 m (8.5 ft), possibly up to 3 m (9.8 ft) in a few cases. It had a relatively short wingspan for its size. The largest extant eagles, none of which are verified to exceed 9 kg (20 lb) in a wild state, are about forty percent smaller in body size than Haast's eagles. One source estimates that the largest females could have weighed more than 16.5 kg (36 lbs). Most estimates place the female Haast's eagles in the range of 10–15 kg (22–33 lbs) and males around 9–12 kg (20–26 lbs).Ī comparison with living eagles of the Australasian region resulted in estimated masses in Haast's eagles of 11.5 kg (25 lbs) for males and 14 kg (31 lbs) for females. Female eagles were significantly larger than males. 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. In length and weight, it was even larger than the largest living vultures. Haast's eagle was one of the largest known true raptors. A recent mitochondrial DNA study found it to be more closely related to the little eagle than the booted eagle, with an estimated divergence from the little eagle around 2.2 million years ago. This was made possible in part by the presence of large prey and the absence of competition from other large predators. 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. If this estimate is correct, its increase in weight by ten to fifteen times is an exceptionally rapid weight increase. moorei is estimated to have diverged from these smaller eagles as recently as 1.8 million to 700,000 years ago. Harpagornis moorei was therefore reclassified as Hieraaetus moorei. ![]() The genus name was from the Greek harpax, meaning "grappling hook", and ornis, meaning "bird".ĭNA analysis later showed that this bird is related most closely to the much smaller little eagle as well as the booted eagle and not, as previously thought, to the large wedge-tailed eagle. Haast named the eagle Harpagornis moorei after George Henry Moore, the owner of the Glenmark Estate, where the bones of the bird had been found. Haast's eagle was first described by Julius von Haast in 1871 from remains discovered by the Canterbury Museum taxidermist, Frederick Richardson Fuller, in a former marsh.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |