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Elephant birds are extinct flightless birds belonging to the order Aepyornithiformes that were native to the island of Madagascar. They are thought to have gone extinct around AD 1000, likely as a result of human activity. Elephant birds comprised three species, one in the genus Mullerornis, and two in Aepyornis.
Aepyornis is an extinct genus of elephant bird formerly endemic to Madagascar. The genus had two species, the smaller A. hildebrandti and the larger A. maximus, which is possibly the largest bird ever to have lived. [2] Its closest living relative is the New Zealand kiwi. [3]
Aepyornis maximus (the giant elephant-bird) was a giant flightless bird that lived in Madagascar. It became extinct probably in the 17th or 18th century; it is thought that it was hunted excessively by humans. The bird was more than 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall, and its egg weighed about 10 kilograms (22 lb). Fragments of the eggs are still found. [2]
The Malagasy crowned eagle (Stephanoaetus mahery), [1] also known as the Madagascar crowned hawk-eagle, is an extinct large bird of prey endemic to Madagascar. It has been proposed that this bird, combined with elephant bird eggs, were the source of sightings of the mythical Roc. [2]
Mullerornis modestus is an extinct species of elephant bird, ... The eggs of Mullerornis are substantially smaller ... "A chronology for late prehistoric Madagascar".
Habitat destruction and hunting have threatened many of Madagascar's endemic species or driven them to extinction. [33] The island's elephant birds, a family of endemic giant ratites, became extinct in 17th century or earlier, most probably due to human hunting of adult birds and poaching of their large eggs for food. [34]
The sickle-billed vanga belongs to the family Vangidae, one of Madagascar's families.. Madagascar is an island nation located off the southeastern coast of Africa.Because of its long separation from neighboring continents—through tectonic movement, it split from Africa about 160 million years ago, and from India around 90 million years ago—it contains many species endemic to the island. [1]
Another possible origin of the myth is accounts of eggs of another extinct Malagasy bird, the enormous Aepyornis elephant bird, hunted to extinction by the 16th century, that was three meters tall and flightless. [14] There were reported elephant bird sightings at least in folklore memory as Étienne de Flacourt wrote in 1658. [8]