EGG OF AN ELEPHANT BIRD, AEPYORNIS MAXIMUS Y
MADAGASCAR
£3,276
Auction: 30 November 2022 at 14:00 GMT
Description
previously fragmented and reassembled, with carved wooden stand
Dimensions
egg 44cm high, 76cm circumference at widest / stand 19cm high
Footnote
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.