moa-nalo

noun

Any of several extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that lived on some islands of Hawaii from the late Pleistocene until sometime before 1778.

Meanings

nounmoa-nalo (plural moa-nalos)

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.

    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.

    3 more examples

    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.

    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

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

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

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

    2012, Michael Heads, Molecular Panbiogeography of the Tropics, page 328
Cite this entry
APA

moa-nalo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moa-nalo

MLA

“moa-nalo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moa-nalo. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “moa-nalo,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moa-nalo.

Source: moa-nalo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.