ELEPHANT BIRD EGG
MADAGASCAR, PLEISTOCENE PERIOD
£5,750
Auction: 8 June 2022 at 14:00 BST
Description
a composite with a large number of pieces from the same egg, presented on a bespoke wooden stand
Dimensions
32cm tall
Footnote
Note:
The Elephant Bird, Aepyornis maximus, produced the largest egg of any animal that has ever lived, including the dinosaurs. Standing around ten feet tall and weighing half a tonne, the volume of an average Elephant Bird egg is equivalent to 160 modern chicken eggs. Native to Madagascar, the animal lived to well within human memory, only becoming extinct around 1200 AD. Indeed, during his travels to the east Marco Polo wrote of hearing tales from sailors about huge birds, these accounts are likely to describe the Elephant Bird.