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
Largest organisms the giant moa ("Dinornis maximus"), part of the moa family of New Zealand that went extinct around 1500 AD. This particular species of moa stood up to tall, but weighed about half as much as a large elephant bird or mihirung due to its comparatively slender frame. The heaviest bird ever capable of flight was "Argentavis magnificens", the largest member of the now extinct family Teratornithidae, found in Miocene-aged fossil beds of Argentina, with a wingspan up to , a length of up to , a height on the ground of up to and a body weight of at least