"Dinornis maximus" (moa) from the Pleistocene or Holocene of New Zealand (public display, CM 81, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA). The moa was a large, tall flightless bird that existed in New Zealand during the Pleistocene and most of the Holocene. Its extinction is entirely due to human activity. Polynesians (Maori ancestors) wiped out this species by about 1500 A.D., less than two centuries after arriving in New Zealand. "Dinornis maximus" was named in 1869 in separate publications by Sir Julius von Haast and by Sir Richard Owen. Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Aves, Paleognathae, Dinornithiformes, Dinornithidae, "Dinornis"