The Great Elephant Bird of Madagascar aka Aepyornis maximus, went extinct since at least the 17th century. There are plenty of fossil remains of this species of bird. They indicate that the creatures were flightless, of massive build, and stood up to 10 ft tall. Like the emu and the ostrich, the Great Elephant Bird of Madagascar is classified as a ratite, (couldn’t fly and lacked a keel in their breast bones). Weighing in at about 900 lbs, their tibia was much longer than the tarsus (the lower leg bone), implying that the Great Elephant Bird was not a fast runner.

Etienne de Flacourt, who was named Governor of Madagascar by the French East India Company in the mid 17^th century (1648) recorded many sightings of these birds and was the first to report on their existence. As their name implies, the Great Elephant Bird of Madagascar inhabited the African island of Madagascar, most likely in the woodland and forest regions of the southwestern portion of the island. They most likely fed on forest plants and fruits.

The circumference of their eggs reached up to 3ft and the volume of the egg was roughly 160 times greater than a chicken egg.  An egg may have weighed up to 12 lbs.  Archaeologists surmise that the Great Elephant Bird’s extinction is due to human presence both in terms of eating them and destroying their habitat with fires.  There is little fossil record evidence to support that the birds themselves were eaten, but there are eggshell remains in many archaeological fire sites. The eggs were likely easy to spot, take, and cook (and feed many human mouths with a single egg!).  Since the eggs are thought to have been laid in small clutches, maybe one or two at a time, and the reproductive cycle slow, it likely was a quick route to extinction

Thought to be the largest egg in the world, a remaining egg of the Great Elephant Bird of Madagascar was recently put up for sale at the Christies Antiques fair for $7,340.  With a circumference of more than 3 feet, this egg shell is now hollow;  and at some point in its history was reassembled from its broken eggshell remains.