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This reduction of forested area may have had cascade effects, like making elephant birds more likely to be encountered by hunters, [31] though there is little evidence of human hunting of elephant birds. Humans may have utilized elephant bird eggs. Introduced diseases (hyperdisease) have been proposed as a cause of extinction, but the ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 3 February 2025. Extinct order of birds This article is about the extinct New Zealand birds known as moa. For other uses, see Moa (disambiguation). Moa Temporal range: Miocene – Holocene, 17–0.0006 Ma Pre๊ ๊ O S D C P T J K Pg N North Island giant moa skeleton Scientific classification Domain ...
The large size of elephant bird eggs means that they would have required substantial amounts of calcium, which is usually taken from a reservoir in the medullary bone in the femurs of female birds. Possible remnants of this tissue have been described from the femurs of A. maximus. [13] Aepyornis eggs, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris
Ostrich eggs are the largest of all eggs, [4] though they are actually the smallest eggs relative to the size of the adult bird — on average they are 15 cm (5.9 in) long, 13 cm (5.1 in) wide, and weigh 1.4 kilograms (3.1 lb), over 20 times the weight of a chicken's egg and only 1 to 4% the size of the female. [5]
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The largest bird in the fossil record may be the extinct elephant birds (Vorombe/Aepyornis) of Madagascar, which were related to the ostrich. They exceeded 3 m (9.8 ft) in height and 500 kg (1,100 lb) in weight. [44] The last of the elephant birds became extinct approximately 1000 years ago.
The extinction of the elephant bird is attributed to human activity. The birds were once widespread, but deforestation and the hunting of the bird's eggs led to the species' decline. [3] Attenborough compares the factors that led to the extinction of the elephant bird with the threats facing critically endangered species in the present. [3]
Egg size tends to be proportional to the size of the adult bird, [citation needed] from the half gram egg of the bee hummingbird to the 1.5 kg egg of the ostrich. Kiwis have disproportionately large eggs, up to 20% of the female's body weight. [ 18 ]