Elephant bird Elephant bird Elephant birds are members of the extinct ratite family Aepyornithidae, made up of large to enormous flightless birds that once lived on the island of Madagascar. They became extinct, perhaps around 1000–1200 CE, for reasons that are unclear, although human activity is the suspected cause. Elephant birds comprised the genera "Mullerornis", "Vorombe" and "Aepyornis". While they were in close geographical proximity to the ostrich, their closest living relatives are kiwi, suggesting that ratites did not diversify by vicariance during the breakup of Gondwana but instead evolved from ancestors that dispersed more recently by flying. In September 2018, scientists
Elephant bird to , the largest type of bird egg ever found. The egg weighed about . The egg volume is about 160 times greater than that of a chicken egg. "Aepyornis" is believed to have been more than tall and weighed perhaps in the range of . In September 2018, scientists reported that "Vorombe titan" reached weights of , and based on a fragmentary femur, possibly up to , making it the world's largest bird. Only the much older species "Dromornis stirtoni" from Australia rivals it in size among known fossil birds. In the same report, the upper weight limits for