Extinct Elephant Birds That Weighed 700 Kilograms, Stood 3 Meters Had Eggs 150 Times Bigger Than Chicken's [STUDY]

Madagascar's extinct elephant birds, as the name suggests, are humongous. A new study revealed the flightless birds' mass and height, confirming that they were indeed giants.

Extinct Elephant Birds

A new study of the ancient molecules extracted from fossil eggshells of extinct elephant birds revealed new insights about the animal. The flightless giants from Madagascar were enormous, like the elephants walking on Earth, because they could weigh up to 700 kilograms and stand up to 3 meters tall.

The Ostrich egg is the largest, but the egg from elephant birds dwarfs it, according to BirdNote. An ostrich egg can weigh as much as 2 kilograms and measure 6 inches in length and 5 inches in diameter.

However, the elephant birds' eggs could weigh up to 10 kilograms and were 150 times larger than a chicken's egg, The Conversation reported.

The elephant bird (Aepyornithiformes) is the largest bird that ever lived. British naturalist David Attenborough is among those who have a keen interest in the extinct animal after acquiring a giant egg belonging to the bird when he visited Madagascar in 1960. The giant egg has been one of his treasured possession, according to BBC.

Elephant birds of Madagascar became extinct around 1,000 years ago when humans first settled on the island. They were reportedly most closely related to the chicken-sized kiwi bird.

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Ancient DNA of Elephant Birds From Eggshells

The outlet noted that there is still an ongoing debate about the number of species of elephant birds. Initially, there were 16 species reported based on the skeletal fossils. In the 1960s, the number was dropped to seven, and the recent classification said there were only four.

Although the birds only became extinct recently, the researchers had a difficult time gathering skeletal fossils because Madagascar's climate is very hot and humid and not conducive to preserving biological material.

Bones don't preserve at all in the far north of Madagascar. However, while there were no bones, there were eggshells.

Fortunately, elephant birds' eggshells are very thick, so the DNA trapped inside was well-protected. There is also an abundance of eggshells than bones across the coastline where the birds presumably once nested.

The eggshells also preserve "stable isotope" signatures that can be matched to plants and animals to determine what the bird ate and drank while still alive.

The physical characteristics of eggshells, like the thickness and pore size, also offer information about the egg size, bird size, nesting environment, nesting behavior, and sometimes to distinguish between bird groups.

The study didn't find as many species of elephant bird as previously thought. According to them, the differences were between males and females and not between species.

However, they surprisingly identified a mystery eggshell from a novel lineage of large elephant birds that weighed 230 kilograms and laid 3-kilogram eggs.

The new finding was reportedly closely related to elephant birds but was genetically distinct. They had a different diet and were 1,000 kilometers away in distance and 1.5 kilometers in elevation.

The study was published in Nature Communications.