: In addition, aren't the Moa fairly recent species on Earth? I think it's more
: likely that they're a result of humans resurrecting/recreating extinct
: species.

Yeah, Earth Moa only went extinct a few hundred years ago. But they also didn't look a whole lot like the Reach Moa.

I had always assumed that colonists on Reach had named the indigenous animal after the Earth Moa, rather then it being literally the same bird. My point was that the Reach Moa is clearly a bird, and there are other flying birds on Reach, as well. That means that there is either an absurd degree of parallel evolution going on, or the birds were transplanted to Reach by humans or Forerunners (or someone else?).