The elephant bird was a giant flightless bird that lived on the island of Madagascar until going extinct around 1,000 years ago. They were the largest birds to have ever lived, standing over 10 feet tall and weighing over 1,000 pounds. The elephant bird laid the largest eggs of any known vertebrate, with some eggs reaching over 3 feet long and having a volume of up to 160 chicken eggs. Though the birds died out centuries ago, unbroken elephant bird eggs can still occasionally be found.
What were elephant birds?
Elephant birds belonged to the extinct ratite family Aepyornithidae. There were likely three different species of elephant bird that lived in Madagascar up until around the 13th century:
- Aepyornis maximus – The largest elephant bird species, standing over 10 feet tall and weighing over 1,100 pounds. Laid eggs up to 13 inches long.
- Aepyornis medius – The medium-sized elephant bird, around 9 feet tall and weighing around 550 pounds. Laid eggs around 11 inches long.
- Aepyornis hildebrandti – The smallest elephant bird, standing around 6 feet tall and weighing around 350 pounds. Laid eggs around 7 inches long.
Elephant birds were herbivores that likely fed on fruits, seeds, and vegetation. They coexisted with early human settlers in Madagascar for thousands of years before going extinct around the 13th century, possibly due to overhunting of adult birds and egg harvesting.
How big were elephant bird eggs?
Elephant bird eggs were by far the largest eggs ever laid by any vertebrate animal. The eggs of Aepyornis maximus, the largest species, reached over 1 foot long and had a volume around 160 times greater than a chicken egg.
To put the size of these massive eggs in perspective:
- Aepyornis maximus eggs were over 3 feet in circumference
- The eggs weighed around 11 pounds, equal to over 20 chicken eggs
- The eggs had a volume of up to 2.5 gallons, around 160 chicken egg volumes
- The shells were up to 1.5 mm thick to support the egg’s weight
- It’s estimated an adult female elephant bird could lay an egg around every 2-3 years
Finding even fragments of an intact elephant bird egg shell is extremely rare today. Only a few nearly complete shells exist in museum collections around the world.
Where have elephant bird egg shells been found?
Most discoveries of elephant bird egg shell fragments and intact eggs have come from archaeological sites around Madagascar:
- In 1851, the French explorer Alfred Grandidier unearthed the first documented elephant bird egg shell fragments from southern Madagascar.
- In 1993, a French archaeology team found a nearly intact elephant bird egg in northern Madagascar, now housed at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris.
- In 1995, a team discovered a 90% intact elephant bird egg dubbed the “Elephant Bird Egg of Ambolisatra” in western Madagascar.
- Pieces of elephant bird egg shell have been found in ancient human settlements in central and southern Madagascar, suggesting early human inhabitants used the giant eggs as food sources.
Very few elephant bird egg shells exist in collections outside of Madagascar. London’s Natural History Museum has a few fragments in its collection, and some museum eggs may have been illegally smuggled out of Madagascar in the past.
Can you still find whole elephant bird eggs today?
While excavated eggs and egg shell fragments can still be found in museums and archaeological sites, it is extremely rare to find a whole, intact elephant bird egg today. This is for a few reasons:
- The birds went extinct over 500 years ago, so no new eggs are being produced.
- Their eggshells were very fragile despite their thickness.
- Many eggs were harvested as food by early Malagasy settlers.
- Any unbroken eggs left behind have likely cracked and degraded over the centuries.
That said, a few nearly intact eggs have been unearthed in recent decades, so more could potentially turn up. However, the chances of finding a perfectly preserved elephant bird egg are very slim. Any in situ eggs in Madagascar are legally protected as national treasures.
Have any real elephant bird eggs gone on display or sale?
Due to their rarity, museums and collectors highly covet elephant bird eggs. A few museums have acquired real eggs for display:
- The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris houses an intact Aepyornis maximus egg discovered in Madagascar in 1993.
- The Hungarian Natural History Museum has an Aepyornis maximus egg found in 1995 on display.
- London’s Grant Museum of Zoology displayed an elephant bird egg fragment for years, but took it off display in 2020 over repatriation concerns.
In 2013, a nearly complete elephant bird egg sold at auction in London for $101,813 to an anonymous buyer. In 2018, another intact egg was auctioned for $100,398. The high prices reflect the rarity and demand for these antique natural treasures. However, selling elephant bird eggs may violate international conservation laws today.
Why are elephant bird eggs so rare now?
It’s estimated around 1 million elephant birds lived on Madagascar up until the 13th century. Yet intact eggs are incredibly scarce today for several reasons:
- Elephant birds went extinct centuries ago, so no new eggs exist.
- Their eggshells were still fragile despite thickness.
- Many eggs were broken by humans and other animals.
- Whole eggs that remained gradually cracked and degraded over time when exposed to weather, gravity, and shifting earth.
- Looting of archaeological sites in the 19th and 20th centuries disturbed many buried eggs.
The tropical environment of Madagascar is not ideal for preserving hard organic matter like eggshells for hundreds of years. The number of whole eggs remaining is likely on the scale of dozens, not hundreds. Each discovered intact is a rare treasure from these extinct giants.
Could we reconstruct an elephant bird egg?
While no technology currently exists to reconstruct an actual elephant bird egg, researchers have used 3D printing and modeling techniques to recreate replicas:
- In 2018, researchers 3D printed a replica metal egg based on scans of real fragments. It represented the first life-sized artificial model.
- Scientists have CT scanned pieces of outer eggshell and modeled the full 3D shape to estimate egg dimensions.
- Artists and museums have used chicken eggs and resins to recreate model elephant bird eggs for display and education.
- DNA evidence could one day allow a real elephant bird egg to be replicated using a related species as a surrogate, but this capability does not currently exist.
While not genetically authentic, these replicas allow us to better understand the size and anatomy of these enormous lost eggs and bring elephant birds back to life in some small way.
Could we clone an elephant bird someday?
No intact elephant bird DNA survives, so cloning an actual living bird is unfortunately impossible with today’s technologies. However, some scientists speculate that de-extinction may eventually become feasible:
- Ancient DNA could potentially be recovered from well-preserved tissue or egg shell fragments.
- DNA from the closely related emu or ostrich could be edited to match an elephant bird’s genome.
- Elephant bird clones could be synthesized using stem cells from living ratites like ostriches.
- A developing ostrich embryo could potentially be transplanted with synthetic elephant bird stem cells to produce a hybrid.
But enormous technical hurdles around ancient DNA and epigenetics would need to be surmounted first. And practical and ethical questions around de-extinction mean cloning an elephant bird remains science fiction for the foreseeable future.
Could we hatch an intact elephant bird egg today?
Even if an intact 600 year old egg were discovered, it’s highly unlikely it would contain a viable embryo or could be artificially hatched:
- The embryo inside would no longer be living or genetically intact after centuries.
- The porous eggshell would have allowed microbial and fungal contamination over time.
- The right artificial incubation environment to mimic Madagascar’s ecology can’t be perfectly recreated.
- We don’t fully understand the precise conditions and incubation period required for these extinct eggs.
Sadly, the time period when an elephant bird egg could have been viably hatched ended centuries ago when the last birds perished. But scientists can still learn much by studying the contents of unhatched eggs found in the future using techniques like CT scanning and DNA analysis.
Conclusion
While elephant birds have been extinct for over half a millennium, their egg remnants stand as remarkable natural relics of these giants. Intact elephant bird eggs are some of the rarest treasures from the natural world. The few that remain are protected cultural artifacts that provide insight into a Madagascar ecosystem now lost to time. Though no new eggs will ever be laid, the amazing size and scale of elephant bird eggs ensure their legends will live on for centuries to come. Their existence is a reminder of both the fragility and resilience of life on our planet.