Elephant bird "A. maximus" and "D. stirtoni" were revised to 540 and 730 kg, respectively. Four species are usually accepted in the genus "Aepyornis" today, but the validity of some is disputed, with numerous authors treating them all in just one species, "A. maximus". Up to three species are generally included in "Mullerornis". Several ratites outside of Madagascar have been posited as "aepyornithid"-like and could potentially make this clade considerably more speciose. These include "Eremopezus" from the Eocene of North Africa, unnamed Canary Island remains and several Neogene taxa in Eurasia. "Aepyornis maximus" is commonly known as the 'elephant bird', a term
Elephant Island Island on 29 January 1821 and named it "Остров Мордвинова" (Mordvinov Island) in honour of . The island is most famous as the desolate refuge of British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew in 1916. Following the loss of their ship "Endurance" in Weddell Sea ice, the 28 exhausted men reached Cape Valentine on Elephant Island after a harrowing ordeal on drifting ice floes. The first of Shackleton's crew to set foot here, and presumably the first person ever to make landfall, was Perce Blackborow, originally a stowaway on "Endurance". Since Blackborow was the youngest crew member, Shackleton commanded that