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The exact time period when they died out is also not certain; tales of these giant birds may have persisted for centuries in folk memory. There is archaeological evidence of Giant elephant bird ( A. maximus ) from a radiocarbon-dated bone at 1880 +/- 70 BP ( c. 120 AD ) with signs of butchering, and on the basis of radiocarbon dating of shells ...
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 tops of elephant bird skulls display punctuated marks, which may have been attachment sites for fleshy structures or head feathers. [18] Mullerornis is the smallest of the elephant birds, with a body mass of around 80 kilograms (180 lb), [16] with its skeleton much less robustly built than Aepyornis. [19]
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]
Like other elephant birds and its kiwi relatives, Mullerornis probably was nocturnal based on the small size of its optic lobes, though it shows less optical lobe reduction than these other taxa, implying slightly more crepuscular habits.
There were reported elephant bird sightings at least in folklore memory as Étienne de Flacourt wrote in 1658. [8] Its egg, live or subfossilised , was known as early as 1420, when sailors to the Cape of Good Hope found eggs of the roc, according to a caption in the 1456 Fra Mauro map of the world, which says that the roc "carries away an ...
Ancient ‘terror birds’ were giant apex predators. Suspected new species is among the largest ever known
The elephant birds of Madagascar †Aepyornithidae - greater elephant birds †Aepyornis. Giant elephant bird, Aepyornis maximus – a 2018 study moved the largest elephant bird specimens to the genus Vorombe, [4] but a 2023 genetic study regarded Vorombe as synonymous with Aepyornis maximus [5] Hildebrandt's elephant bird, Aepyornis hildebrandti