Elephant bird bird" egg after it was radiographed. It is widely believed that the extinction of "Aepyornis" was a result of human activity. The birds were initially widespread, occurring from the northern to the southern tip of Madagascar. One theory states that humans hunted the elephant birds to extinction in a very short time for such a large landmass (the Blitzkrieg hypothesis). There is indeed evidence that they were hunted and their preferred habitats destroyed. Eggs may have been particularly vulnerable. 19th-century travelers saw eggshells used as bowls, and a recent archaeological study found remains of eggshells among the remains of human
African elephant African elephant African elephants are elephants of the genus Loxodonta. The genus consists of two extant species: the African bush elephant, "L. africana", and the smaller African forest elephant, "L. cyclotis". "Loxodonta" (from Greek λοξός, "loxós": 'slanting, crosswise, oblique sided' + ὀδούς, "odoús": stem odónt-, 'tooth') is one of two existing genera of the family Elephantidae. Fossil remains of "Loxodonta" have been found only in Africa, in strata as old as the middle Pliocene. However, sequence analysis of DNA extracted from fossils of an extinct elephant species undermines the validity of the genus. One species of African elephant, the bush