Science Museum discovers rare elephant bird egg among its collection

By MAX KALNITZ • APR 24, 2018

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A recent discovery at the Buffalo Museum of Science has the scientific community buzzing. A team uncovered a fully-intact elephant bird egg while digitally cataloging the museum’s oological collection.

The flightless bird, native to Madagascar was on average 10-feet tall and weighed between 770 and 1,100 pounds, according to Director of Collections Kathryn Leacock. The bird’s silhouette resembles the modern ostrich and emu, it is believed to have gone extinct around 1,200 AD.

The egg measures 12 inches long and 28 inches in circumference, and weighs 3 pounds 5 ounces, or the equivalent of 150 chicken eggs. There are less than 40 intact eggs known in museums around the world, making the find extremely rare.

For years, the museum displayed the egg as a cast model of an actual elephant bird egg. While cataloging, curators quickly began to suspect the egg was, in fact, real

Leacock said she has walked past the egg thousands of times and never questioned its authenticity. After the discovery of the second egg, Leacock said she and her team immediately felt a difference between the two.

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Elephant Bird Egg Fetches Over $100,000 At Christie's Auction In London

LONDON -- A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction. 

Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding. 

Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The oversized ovum, laid on the island of Madagascar, is believed to date back before the 17th century. 

Flightless, fruit-gobbling elephant birds resembled giant ostriches and could grow to be 11 feet high (3.4 meters). Christie's says their eggs are 100 times the size of an average chicken's. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/elephant-bird-egg-price-christies-action-london_n_3149596.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

Dodo Bone, Huge Elephant Bird Egg Up for Auction

Megan Gannon, News Editor

Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 05:57 PM ET

Traces of two awkward birds that have become emblems of extinction are headed for the auction block next month.

Christie's announced this week that it's selling a femur bone fragment of a dodo and a massive sub-fossilized elephant bird egg that's 100 times the size of a chicken egg.

Elephant birds were flightless creatures that stood 10 feet (3 m) tall and lived on the island of Madagascar until they were driven to extinction by the 18th century, possibly due to factors like disease introduced by settlers or humans' unsustainable appetite for their eggs.

Their eggs indeed would have been big enough to feed a family, or several; the complete one up for auction measures 9 inches (21 cm) in diameter and 12 inches (30 cm) in height. It's expected to sell for up to $45,000.

Read on: http://www.livescience.com/28283-dodo-bone-elephant-bird-egg-auction.html