- · Grid units represent actual meters (m); human and animals are drawn to the exact same scale with original silhouette aspect ratios preserved.
- · When a size range is recorded (e.g. 1–1.6m), the lower bound is used for scale comparison.
- · Yellow dashed line shows recorded total body length (including tail), which may differ from silhouette width due to posture.
- · Harpagornis silhouette: PhyloPic — Robert Cooke · CC0 1.0 (Accipitridae)
- · Human silhouette: PhyloPic — NASA · Public Domain Mark 1.0
Harpagornis
Harpagornis moorei (Harpagornis · ハーストイーグル)
Known only from fossils. The IUCN Red List assesses only species extant since 1500 CE, so fossil taxa are not assigned a category.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A maximum weight of 17.8 kg is slightly lighter than a 20 kg bag of rice (Comparison).
- 💡 The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa compares the impact of this eagle diving from a treetop at 80 km/h to "dropping a 12 kg rock from the top of the museum."
- 💡 A maximum wingspan of 3 m is similar to the combined arm span of two adults about 1.7 m tall standing fingertips to fingertips (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
Harpagornis moorei is the largest eagle known to date and lived on the South Island of New Zealand. After Māori people arrived and the moa vanished, it went extinct along with them about 500–600 years ago.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its head, beak, legs, and talons were large and powerful for its body size, and with thick talons the size of tiger claws it could pierce even a moa's pelvis. Males were smaller than females.
🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology
It mainly hunted moa on the South Island. It is thought to have swooped down rapidly from tall trees or rocks, seized prey with its talons, and killed it by crushing the skull. As moa numbers declined, this eagle vanished along with them.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • Fossil taxon — the IUCN Red List assesses only species living or extinct since 1500
- • paleobiodb.org — basicTaxonInfo
- • wikidata.org — Q243451
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Canterbury Museum, Christchurch - Joy of Museums - Haas
- • nzbirdsonline.org.nz — haasts-eagle
- • collections.tepapa.govt.nz — 1360
- • collections.tepapa.govt.nz — 2504
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Robert Cooke · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Accipitridae)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.