moa-nalo

English

An artist's rendering of Thambetochen chauliodous and Ptaiochen pau

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

moa-nalo (plural moa-nalos)

1. Any of several extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that lived on some islands of Hawaii from the late Pleistocene until sometime before 1778.
   • 1994, Storrs L. Olson, Helen F. James, “Descriptions of Thirty-Two New Species of Birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part I. Non-Passeriforms”, in E. Alison Kay, editor, A Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands: Selected Readings II, page 451:

     All of the raptors would have exploited rails, young ibises, and perhaps young moa-nalos, although the eagle was the only one capable of taking adult ibises or moa-nalos.

   • 1996, Amoco Oil Company, Sixth North American Paleontological Convention: Abstracts of Papers, page 194,

     We obtained a collection of coprolites from Thambetochen chauliodous, one of four species of flightless Hawaiian waterfowl known collectively as moa-nalos.

   • 2006, Guy A. Baldassarre, Eric G. Bolen, Waterfowl Ecology and Management, 2nd edition, page 41:

     Moa-nalos did not occur on Hawaii, which was occupied by another herbivore, the Giant Hawaiian Goose.

   • 2012, Michael Heads, Molecular Panbiogeography of the Tropics, page 328:

     The moa-nalos are a clade of ducks known from subfossils on the main Hawaiian islands.

Derived terms

• turtle-jawed moa-nalo (Chelychelynechen quassus)
• small-billed moa-nalo (Ptaiochen pau)
• O'ahu moa-nalo (Thambetochen xanion)
• Maui Nui large-billed moa-nalo (Thambetochen chauliodous)