Important Natural History Auction 2017-07-30
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/29/2017
ELEPHANT BIRD EGG
Aepyornis maximus
Madagascar
This incredible egg is from the largest bird ever known to have lived, the 10-foot tall Elephant Bird of Madagascar. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was a ratite like the moa, the rhea or the ostrich, lacking the keel to its breastbone that would provide sufficient leverage to operate its wings in flight, and believed to weigh almost 900 pounds (400 kilograms). It survived at least until the late seventeenth century, and it is believed that human appetite for these enormous eggs played a large part in its extinction. Remarkably little is known about the creature, however, because no complete skeleton has ever been discovered, and very few associated ones are available for study; their least scarce remains are these incredible eggs, with a volume approximately 160 times that of a chicken egg. This is a reconstructed example of good size, at 12 1/2 inches long.
$1,200 - 1,500\n