A recent discovery at the Buffalo
Museum of Science has the scientific community buzzing. A team uncovered a
fully-intact elephant bird egg while digitally cataloging the museum’s
oological collection.
The flightless bird, native to
Madagascar was on average 10-feet tall and weighed between 770 and 1,100
pounds, according to Director of Collections Kathryn Leacock. The bird’s
silhouette resembles the modern ostrich and emu, it is believed to have gone
extinct around 1,200 AD.
The egg measures 12 inches long
and 28 inches in circumference, and weighs 3 pounds 5 ounces, or the equivalent
of 150 chicken eggs. There are less than 40 intact eggs known in museums around
the world, making the find extremely rare.
For years, the museum displayed
the egg as a cast model of an actual elephant bird egg. While cataloging,
curators quickly began to suspect the egg was, in fact, real
Leacock said she has walked past
the egg thousands of times and never questioned its authenticity. After the
discovery of the second egg, Leacock said she and her team immediately felt a
difference between the two.
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