Elephant Bird Eggs
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 23rd, 2008
Today is Easter, a day associated with eggs, so I thought I’d say a couple things about the largest bird egg in the world ~ that of Aepyornis maximus.
Aaron Spriggs, who works at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (formerly the Denver Museum of Natural History), and I were talking the other day. He’s assisting in the preparation of the DMNS’s April 1, 2008, illustrated lecture on “Cryptozoology,” and we got to discussing elephant bird eggs. Spriggs noted that there are only 16 elephant bird eggs in the world, and the DMNS owns two intact ones.
The DMNS should be proud. Any museum with a display on elephant birds and their eggs is worthy of noting.
Bone Clones replica.
Someday I hope to, at least, obtain a replica, like the above Bone Clones example, for the International Cryptozoology Museum, to go with the farm-grown hen, emu, rhea, and ostrich eggs I have here.
In the meantime, sharing some photos of these remarkable eggs, and what the bird looked like that issued these eggs, seems appropriate today. After all, this bird might be the last great instance of what must have been a near-modern version of the “terror birds.”
Reconstruction of an elephant bird egg, Ipswich Museum, England.
An elephant bird egg compared with an ostrich and hummingbird egg.
Dr. Timothy Rowe (above) University of Texas poses inside the CT scanner with the National Geographic Society’s elephant bird egg, on loan from Washington D. C.
Colin Keates (c) Dorling Kindersley, Courtesy of the Natural History Museum, London.
Egg of the giant elephant bird. Registration No. NMV B.3273. Museum Victoria, Australia.
The size of the elephant bird’s egg was enormous ~ 15 times larger than an ostrich egg and 10,000 times larger than a hummingbird egg.
I still haven’t been able to find the Denver examples online, so there must be some top-secret specialness to them. After all, who else can boast of two intact elephant bird eggs under one roof?
Hey Loren, thanks for the shout out!
One correction, our museum got a name change a few years ago, and now we are the DMNS = Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Much controversy, but they wanted to include space science in the museum and they felt the name wouldn’t reflect that.
Thanks again, and take care.
Aaron
The blog has been edited to reflect this correction.
Hi Loren - and Happy Easter! Were Elephant Birds carnivores, or did they feed their massive bodies on fruit and grain? The same question would apply to the Moas of New Zealand.
Thanks!
Mike
The elephant birds of Madagascar reportedly mostly ate forest fruits.
The giant moas of New Zealand may have been a more diverse diet, we are told. Preserved stomach contents have shown that the moa ate a diet of twigs, seeds, leaves, fruit and leaves, and browsed on shrubs, rather than grazed on grass.
Ostriches, the largest ground-dwelling bird around today, eat various seeds. grasses, bushes and forage on trees. They supplement this diet with animal food such as invertebrates and small vertebrates.
Considering that the elephant bird supposedly became extinct in the 16th century, the full extent of their diet probably is not clearly known. Due to the size of the elephant birds, I would suggest they may have eaten small invertebrates and little vertebrates, as the opportunity presented itself.
Big flightless birds like ratides but also mainly ground-dwelling birds like galliformes have in general an adaption of their diet when they grow older. Young birds mainly eat insects and other nutritious food, but the larger they grow, the more plant material they eat. This has general reasons. Much proteins enable a fast growth during the first months of the life. Furthermore young and therefore smaller birds can in general better life from a mainly carnivorous or omnivorous diet than larger birds. A big bird like an ostrich could get easily problems if it would only eat small animals, so they prefer plant material which is available in much bigger masses and eat small animals only on occasion.
I have seen an Aepyornis egg in the Museum of Natural History at Vienna, but I don’t know if it is real. But they have a true femur of an Aepyornis and among many other recently extinct animals five Moa skeletons, including Dinornis maximus.
Man! Just imagine the omelette
DNA? If so, then maybe an ostrich could bear a reconstruct? Or over generations breed up to it? I suppose the Ostrich is the closest likely relative.
Is this bird not the Roc of legend?
What RED_PILL_JUNKIE said.
In somewhat the same vein—
This reminds me of one of the last skits CHAPELLE made before he quit his brilliant (and much missed) show. In the skit, Chappelle got hold of a DINOSAUR EGG and managed to hatch it.
Just as the baby dinosaur emerged form the cracked shell—and to the accompaniment of the 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY music, Chappelle cut off the critter’s head and started drinking its blood!!! He also fried and ate another dinosaur egg!
I guess one has to see to appreciate it, but I was laughing my A** off!!!
If one saw that skit, one would know what I’m talking about. So funny.
Anyway—COULD this be the ROC of legend as SSCHAPER said?
Well cryptidsrus, I couldn’t find the video you mentioned, but it reminded me of the funny ‘pterodactyl egg’ scene from the movie ‘Caveman’ with Ringo Starr, which you can find at Youtube (type ‘giant egg, caveman’)