Elephant bird birds and human beings and their eventual extinction, as they apparently coexisted for a massive period of time. However, the absence so far for any evidence of human habitation in the succeeding 6000 years raises difficult questions concerning whether the early human presence might have been temporary, and/or restricted to just a portion of the island. 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
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