New research from CU Boulder and Curtin University in Australia reveals that elephant bird eggshells contain valuable clues about their time on Earth.
Aepyornis ingens – an elephant bird in Madagascar. The birds (Aepyornithidae, also Madagascar ostriches or Malagasy Vorompatras) are an extinct (about 1000 A.D.) family of ratites with the three genera Aepyornis, Mullerornis and Vorombe. His height was over 3.5 meters. The Frenchman Alfred Grandidier first discovered a fossil of these birds during one of his research trips on the island between 1865 and 1870. Wood engravings, published in 1895. Picture: Getty Images
The study, published in Nature Communications, describes the discovery of a new lineage of an elephant bird that roamed the northeastern side of Madagascar, which had previously been unknown, made without access to any skeletal remains. It is the first time that a new lineage of elephant bird has been identified from ancient eggshells alone, allowing scientists to learn more about the diversity of birds that once roamed the world and why so many have since gone extinct in the past 10,000 years. ‘This is the first time a taxonomic identification has been derived from an elephant bird eggshell and it opens up a field nobody would have thought about before,’ said paper co-author Gifford Miller.
Madagascar has been separated from Africa and neighbouring continents by deep ocean water for at least 60 million years. It has produced lemurs, elephant birds, and all kinds of animals that exist nowhere else on the planet. Due to limited skeletal remains, it was not known until recently where the birds fit into the evolutionary tree. Most scientists knew that they were part of the flightless ratite family.
The study’s lead author, Alicia Grealy, said, ‘While we found fewer species living in southern Madagascar at the time of their extinction, we also uncovered novel diversity from Madagascar’s far north. These findings are an important step forward in understanding the complex history of these enigmatic birds.’
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