The Elephant Bird was the largest member of an extinct family of flightless birds native to the island of Madagascar. As some individuals stood nearly 10 feet tall (3m) and weighed upwards of 1,100 pounds (500kg), it should come as no surprise that these massive birds also laid the largest eggs of any known bird species, with volumes approaching 1.9 gallons (7L).

This specimen is a fragment of an Elephant Bird Eggshell obtained from a private collection. Each fragment is unique.

Elephant Bird Eggshell Sizing

Small - Approximately 0.75"

Large - Approximately 1.5"

Both sizes come in our classic, glass-topped riker display cases. The cases measure 4"x3"x1". A small information card is also included, which also serves as the certificate of authenticity. As pictured, the Small specimen is enclosed in an acrylic specimen jar.

Aepyornis, popularly known as the Elephant Bird, was the largest member of an extinct family of flightless birds native to the island of Madagascar. Some individuals stood nearly 10 feet tall (3m) and weighed upwards of 1,100 pounds (500kg).

Elephant-bird eggs outsize any other bird eggs known, with volumes approaching 1.9 gallons (7L). At 160 times that of an average chicken, these are the heftiest eggs of any vertebrate, including dinosaurs.

Such imposing figures may conjure ideas of an enormous ostrich or even the savage "terror bird" of the Late Paleocene, but researchers believe that these giants were more like their distant (and much, much smaller) cousins, the kiwi. Given their physical bulk, scientists believe they moved slowly through the forests of Madagascar, browsing and splitting tough fruits with their heavy, pointed bills, until their extinction approximately 1,200 years ago.

Coastal concentrations of Elephant Bird eggs raise the possibility that Aepyornis nested communally. Eggs and juvenile elephant birds may have been vulnerable to now extinct predators, such as giant fossa or the Malagasy crowned eagle. Yet given their size, adults likely had little to worry about from other creatures—except, perhaps, human beings.

One common theory for the disappearance of elephant birds is the arrival of humans in Madagascar some 2,000 years ago. Fragments of elephant-bird eggs have been found in archaeological sites; some elephant-bird bones show the scoring of knives. Some scientists question this hypothesis, suggesting such evidence for human hunting of elephant birds is sparse, but it would be difficult to question the nutritional value of such an enormous egg.

The agent or agents of extinction for the elephant bird are not entirely known; neither is the exact period of their disappearance. In 1658, a French colonial governor of Madagascar, Etienne de Flacourt, made an intriguing reference to an enormous bird, the vouropatra, inhabiting remote portions of southern Madagascar, which suggests that at least one species of Aepyornis maybe survived a bit longer.

"A large bird, called the 'vouropatra' haunts the Ampatres. It lays eggs like the ostriches; but in the loneliest places so that the people of these places may not take them."