Along with much of the other native fauna, Dinornis novaezealandiae disappeared from New Zealand around the 15th century, roughly 200 years after the Māori first arrived on the islands.

[5] Fossils of D. novaezealandiae display a large reversed sexual dimorphism where the females are much larger than males, estimated to have weighed nearly double.

[8]: 76  The North Island brown kiwi, that does not reach adult body mass until 12 months, is viewed as a more appropriate developmental analog for the Dinornis due to the similarities that have been drawn between the time taken to reach complete maturity of hindlimbs (5 years), as well as the time upon which tarsals commence fusion with adjacent long bones (4 years).

[8]: 79 Even though it might have walked with a lowered posture, standing upright, it would have been the tallest bird ever to exist, with a height estimated up to 3.6 metres (12 ft).

[citation needed] Dinornis was a widely represented genus of moa in the North Island of New Zealand, inhabiting lowland habitats like shrublands, grasslands, dunelands, and forests.

[5][10]: 1  The habitat of the animal is thought to have remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years, in part due to the bird's inability to fly,[11]: e50732 [12]: 5  although habitat shifts have been noted both during times of changing climate and vegetative zones and in reaction to the influence of anthropogenic factors such as the introduction of Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) and Polynesian dog (Canis familiaris).

[13]: 2  Moa have been found to filiramulate growth habit in plants such as divarication, heteroblasty, deciduousness, spines or spine like structures (enlarged stinging hairs), leaf loss and photosynthetic stems, mimicry and reduced visual apparency, tough and fibrous leaves, distasteful compounds and low nutrient status.

[13]: 15  The deep, longstanding interconnectedness between plants and moa means that the consequences of the extinction of D. novaezealandiae may still be largely unknown.

[14]: 8261  Further speculation suggests that moa such as D. novaezealandiae may have evolved to have long intestines in order to ferment their plant-based diet, in accordance with their large body size.

It was observed in the Poukawa region that these would often lead to freshwater springs and the bottom of rocky cliffs; where they would tend to nest and roost.

[15]: 46  Once this observation was made these paths became particularly useful for humans when searching for fresh water sources and would continue to be used for these purposes long after the moa's extinction.

[7] There is a single, largely intact egg (197 x 151 mm) attributed to this species, from a rock shelter in the Mangawhitikau Valley near Waitomo.

This is because the moa was used as a metaphor for the Māori people to express fears of their own extinction that developed as illness, disease and deforestation by European settlers posed a severe threat to their survival.

[21]: 131–134  Though human settlement and hunting activities played the most significant role, there are some other factors that may have inhibited D. novaezealandiae from reproducing at the rate that they were being culled, such as the introduction of Polynesian dogs, as they would have eaten moa chicks.