Elephant Bird

**Elephant birds** are members of the extinct ratite family **Aepyornithidae**, made up of large to enormous flightless birds that once lived on the island of Madagascar. They became extinct, perhaps around 1000–1200 CE, probably as a result of human activity. Elephant birds comprised the genera *Mullerornis*, *Vorombe* and *Aepyornis*. While they were in close geographical proximity to the ostrich, their closest living relatives are kiwi, suggesting that ratites did not diversify by vicariance during the breakup of Gondwana but instead evolved from ancestors that dispersed more recently by flying.

In September 2018, scientists determined that *Vorombe titan* reached weights of 730 kg (1,600 lb) and stood 3 m (9.8 ft) tall, making it the world's largest bird, slightly larger than the much-older *Dromornis stirtoni*.

## Contents

* 1Description
* 2Species
	+ 2.1Etymology
* 3Taxonomy and biogeography
* 4Biology
	+ 4.1Diet
	+ 4.2Reproduction
* 5Relationship with humans
	+ 5.1Extinction
	+ 5.2In art and literature
* 6See also
* 7Notes
* 8References
* 9External links

## Description

Size of *Aepyornis maximus* (center, in purple) compared to a human, an ostrich (second from right, in maroon), and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Grid spacings are 1.0 m.

Elephant birds have been extinct since at least the 17th century. Étienne de Flacourt, a French governor of Madagascar in the 1640s and 1650s, mentions an ostrich-like bird said to inhabit unpopulated regions, though it is unclear whether he was repeating folk tales passed on from generations earlier. In 1659, Flacourt wrote of the "vouropatra – a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places may not take it, it seeks the most lonely places." Marco Polo also mentioned hearing stories of very large birds during his journey to the East during the late 13th century. These accounts are today believed to describe elephant birds.

Between 1830 and 1840 European travelers in Madagascar saw giant eggs and egg shells. English observers were more willing to believe the accounts of giant birds and eggs because they knew of the moa in New Zealand. In 1851 the French Academy of Sciences received three eggs and some bone fragments. In some cases the eggs have a length up to 34 cm (13 in), the largest type of bird egg ever found. The egg weighed about 10 kg (22 lb). The egg volume is about 160 times greater than that of a chicken egg.

*Aepyornis* is believed to have been more than 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and weighed perhaps in the range of 350 to 500 kg (770 to 1,100 lb). In September 2018, scientists reported that *Vorombe titan* reached weights of 730 kg (1,600 lb), and based on a fragmentary femur, possibly up to 860 kg (1,900 lb), making it the world's largest bird. Only the much older species *Dromornis stirtoni* from Australia rivals it in size among known fossil birds. In the same report, the upper weight limits for *A. maximus* and *D. stirtoni* were revised to 540 and 730 kg, respectively.

## Species

Four species are usually accepted in the genus *Aepyornis* today, but the validity of some is disputed, with numerous authors treating them all in just one species, *A. maximus*. Up to three species are generally included in *Mullerornis*.

* **Order Aepyornithiformes** Newton 1884 [Aepyornithes Newton 1884; Epyornisi; Aepiornithes Stejneger 1885; Aepiornithiformes Ridgway 1901]
	+ **Family Aepyornithidae** (Bonaparte 1853) [Epyornithinae Bonaparte 1853; Aepyornithinae (Bonaparte 1853)]
		- **Genus *Aepyornis*** Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1850
			* *Aepyornis gracilis* Monnier, 1913 (Gracile elephant-bird)
			* *Aepyornis hildebrandti* Burckhardt, 1893 [*Aepyornis mulleri* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier 1894; *Aepyornis minimus* ]  (Hildebrandt's elephant-bird)
			* *Aepyornis maximus* Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1851 [*Aepyornis modestus* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1869] (Giant elephant-bird)
			* *Aepyornis medius* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1866 [*Aepyornis grandidieri* Rowley, 1867; *Aepyornis cursor* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894; *Aepyornis lentus* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894; *Aepyornis intermedius* ] (Medium/greater elephant-bird)
		- **Genus *Mullerornis*** Milne-Edwards & Grandidier 1894 [*Flacourtia* Andrews 1895]
			* *Mullerornis betsilei* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894 (Betsile elephant-bird)
			* *Mullerornis agilis* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894 (Agile/coastal elephant-bird)
			* *Mullerornis rudis* Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894 [*Flacourtia rudis* (Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894) Andrews, 1895] (Robust elephant-bird)
			* ?*Mullerornis grandis* Lamberton 1934
		- **Genus *Vorombe*** Hansford & Turvey, 2018
			* *Vorombe titan* Andrews 1894 [*Aepyornis titan* Andrews 1894; *Aepyornis ingens* Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, 1894]

Several ratites outside of Madagascar have been posited as "aepyornithid"-like and could potentially make this clade considerably more speciose. These include *Eremopezus* from the Eocene of North Africa, unnamed Canary Island remains and several Neogene taxa in Eurasia.

### Etymology

*Mullerornis agilis*
*Aepyornis maximus* is commonly known as the 'elephant bird', a term that apparently originated from Marco Polo's account of the rukh in 1298, although he was apparently referring to an eagle-like bird strong enough to "seize an elephant with its talons". Sightings of eggs of elephant birds by sailors (e.g. text on the Fra Mauro map of 1467–69, if not attributable to ostriches) could also have been erroneously attributed to a giant raptor from Madagascar. The legend of the roc could also have originated from sightings of such a giant subfossil eagle related to the African crowned eagle, which has been described in the genus *Stephanoaetus* from Madagascar, being large enough to carry off large primates; today, lemurs still retain a fear of aerial predators such as these. Another might be the perception of ratites retaining neotenic features and thus being mistaken for enormous chicks of a presumably more massive bird.

The ancient Malagasy name for the bird is **vorompatra**, meaning "bird of the Ampatres". The Ampatres are today known as the Androy region of southern Madagascar.

## Taxonomy and biogeography

*Aepyornis maximus* restoration

Like the ostrich, rhea, cassowary, emu, kiwi and extinct moa, *Mullerornis* and *Aepyornis* were ratites; they could not fly, and their breast bones had no keel. Because Madagascar and Africa separated before the ratite lineage arose, *Aepyornis* has been thought to have dispersed and become flightless and gigantic *in situ*.

More recently, it has been deduced from DNA sequence comparisons that the closest living relatives of elephant birds are New Zealand kiwi, though they are not particularly closely related, being estimated to have diverged from each other 54 million years ago. Elephant birds are actually part of the mid-Cenozoic Australian ratite radiation; their ancestors flew across the Indian Ocean well after Gondwana broke apart. The existence of possible flying palaeognaths in the Miocene such as *Proapteryx* further supports the view that ratites did not diversify in response to vicariance. Gondwana broke apart in the Cretaceous and their phylogenetic tree does not match the process of continental drift. Madagascar has a notoriously poor Cenozoic terrestrial fossil record, with essentially no fossils between the end of the Cretaceous (Maevarano Formation) and the Late Pleistocene. Molecular clock estimates from complete mitochondrial genomes obtained from *Aepyornis* eggshells suggest that *Aepyornis* and *Mullerornis* diverged from each other during the mid Oligocene around 27 million years ago, suggesting elephant birds must have been present on Madagascar before this time.

Claims of findings of "aepyornithid" egg remains on the eastern Canary Islands, if valid, would represent a major biogeographical enigma. These islands are not thought to have been connected to mainland Africa when elephant birds were alive. There is no indication that elephant birds evolved outside Madagascar, and today, the Canary Island eggshells are considered to belong to extinct North African birds that may not have been ratites (possibly *Eremopezus*/*Psammornis*, or even Pelagornithidae, prehistoric seabirds of immense size).[*citation needed*] Various "aepyornithid-like" eggs and bones occur in Paleogene and Miocene deposits in Africa and Europe.

Two whole eggs have been found in dune deposits in southern Western Australia, one in the 1930s (the Scott River egg) and one in 1992 (the Cervantes egg); both have been identified as *Aepyornis maximus* rather than *Genyornis*. It is hypothesized that the eggs floated from Madagascar to Australia on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Evidence supporting this is the finding of two fresh penguin eggs that washed ashore on Western Australia but originated in the Kerguelen Islands, and an ostrich egg found floating in the Timor Sea in the early 1990s.

## Biology

Examination of brain endocasts has shown that that both *A. maximus* and *A. hildebrandi* had greatly reduced optic lobes, similar to those of their closest living relatives, the kiwis, and consistent with a similar nocturnal lifestyle. The optic lobes of *Mullerornis* were also reduced, but to a lesser degree, suggestive of a nocturnal or crepuscular lifestyle. *A. maximus* had relatively larger olfactory bulbs than *A. hildebrandi*, suggesting that the former occupied forested habitats where the sense of smell is more useful while the latter occupied open habitats.

### Diet

Because there is no rainforest fossil record in Madagascar, it is not known for certain if there were species adapted to dense forest dwelling, like the cassowary in Australia and New Guinea today. However, some rainforest fruits with thick, highly sculptured endocarps, such as that of the currently undispersed and highly threatened forest coconut palm *Voanioala gerardii*, may have been adapted for passage through ratite guts, and the fruit of some palm species are indeed dark bluish purple (e.g. *Ravenea louvelii* and *Satranala decussilvae*), just like many cassowary-dispersed fruits.

### Reproduction

*Aepyornis* eggs, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris
Occasionally subfossil eggs are found intact. The National Geographic Society in Washington holds a specimen of an *Aepyornis* egg which was given to Luis Marden in 1967. The specimen is intact and contains the skeleton of the unhatched bird. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Denver, Colorado) holds two intact eggs, one of which is currently on display. Another giant *Aepyornis* egg is on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, MA. A cast of the egg is preserved at the Grant Museum of Zoology at London University.

David Attenborough owned an almost complete eggshell, dating from 600 to 700 CE, which he pieced together from fragments that were given to him while making his 1961 BBC series *Zoo Quest to Madagascar*. In March 2011, the BBC broadcast the 60-minute documentary *Attenborough and the Giant Egg*, presented by Attenborough, about his personal scientific quest to discover the secrets of the elephant bird and its egg.

A complete eggshell is also available in the collection of the University of Wrocław Museum of Natural History.

There is also an intact specimen of an elephant bird's egg (contrasted with the eggs from other bird species, including a hummingbird's) on display at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, just outside Wilmington, Delaware, US, and another in the Natural History Museum, London.

The Melbourne Museum has two *Aepyornis* eggs. The first was acquired for £100 by Professor Frederick McCoy in June 1862, and is an intact example. In 1950 it was subjected to radiological examination, which revealed no traces of embryonic material. A second, side-blown *Aepyornis* egg was acquired at a later date.

The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, with one of the world's largest collections of avian eggs, has seven *Aepyornis* egg specimens.

A specimen is also held by the science department at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, UK.

In the collections of the department of geology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago there is a complete, side-blown egg collected, in about 1917, by Rev. Peter A. Bjelde.

A specimen of egg is also held at Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhubaneswar which was donated by former Indian Ambassador Abasar Beuria and his wife Tripti Beuria from their collection.

In April 2013 a specimen was sold at Christie's in London for £66,675 The pre-sale estimate had been "more than $45,000".

In April 2018, staff at the Buffalo Museum of Science discovered, after radiographing a giant, cream-colored egg, measuring 12 inches (300 mm) in length and 28 inches (710 mm) in circumference, and weighing over 3 pounds (1.4 kg), that had long been thought to be just a model, was actually an "elephant bird" egg.

## Relationship with humans

### Extinction

Restoration of *Aepyornis maximus*
It is widely believed that the extinction of *Aepyornis* was a result of human activity. The birds were initially widespread, occurring from the northern to the southern tip of Madagascar. One theory states that humans hunted the elephant birds to extinction in a very short time for such a large landmass (the blitzkrieg hypothesis). There is indeed evidence that they were hunted and their preferred habitats destroyed. Eggs may have been particularly vulnerable. 19th-century travelers saw eggshells used as bowls, and a recent archaeological study found remains of eggshells among the remains of human fires, suggesting that the eggs regularly provided meals for entire families.

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 *Aepyornis* from a radiocarbon-dated bone at 1880 ± 70 BP (approximately 120 CE) with signs of butchering, and on the basis of radiocarbon dating of shells, about 1000 BP (approximately 1000 CE).

An alternative theory is that the extinction was a secondary effect of human impact resulting from transfer of hyperdiseases from human commensals such as chickens and guineafowl. The bones of these domesticated fowl have been found in subfossil sites in the island (MacPhee and Marx, 1997: 188), such as Ambolisatra (Madagascar), where *Mullerornis* sp. and *Aepyornis maximus* have been reported. Also reported by these authors, ratite remains have been found in west and south west Madagascar, at Belo-sur-Mer (*A. medius*, *Mullerornis rudis*), Bemafandry (*M. agilis*) and Lamboharana (*Mullerornis* sp.).

Recently human tool marks have been found on elephant bird bones dating to approximately 10,000 BCE. This not only vastly extends the range of human existence on Madagascar's prehistoric past, but suggests a more complex relationship between these birds and human beings and their eventual extinction, as they apparently coexisted for a massive period of time. However, the absence so far for any evidence of human habitation in the succeeding 6000 years raises difficult questions concerning whether the early human presence might have been temporary, and/or restricted to just a portion of the island.

### In art and literature

*Aepyornis* skull

* The roc (rukh) is known from Sindbad the Sailor's encounter with one in *One Thousand and One Nights*. Some scholars think the roc is a distorted account of *Aepyornis*. Historical evidence for this can be found in Megiser (1623).
* H. G. Wells wrote a short story titled "Æpyornis Island" (1894) about the bird. It was first collected in *The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents* (1895).
* Wildlife artist Walton Ford created a painting called *Madagascar* about the elephant bird in 2002.