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Description
Aepyornis maximus
In the late 13th century (~1298), the great Venetian explorer Marco Polo made landfall on the island of Madagascar. He is largely believed to be one of the first people from the west to visit the region. On his travels, he recorded stories of a massive bird that was so big, it’d seize an elephant in its talons and carry it off into its mountain stronghold in central Madagascar. It was called the Rukh, or the Roc, but more commonly called the “Elephant Bird” because of its supposed favorite prey. It’s unknown if Marco Polo ever actually saw these birds or whether these were passed to him via word of mouth from the locals in the region.

History:
Around 450 years later, the French Governor of the island, Étienne de Flacourt recalled accounts of a large ostrich-like bird residing in remote regions of Madagascar, saying, “Vouropatra – a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places may not take it, it seeks the most lonely places”. Vouropatra is a Malagasy name which means “bird of the Ampatres” a region in southern Madagascar where a lot of material has been found. Like Marco Polo’s accounts, it is not known if these were oral legends passed down to him or actual accounts.
The real creature is likely an Aepyornith a group of ratites more commonly known as the “Elephant Birds”. There were 4 species in 3 genera, the most well-known species is the type species, Aepyornis maximus.

Eggs on the Market:
The animal was described by French Zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In 1850, he was sent fossil (or sub-fossil) material from the southwest coast of Madagascar consisting of bones, egg fragments, and a restored egg. On January 27th, 1851, he named the species, Aepyornis maximus, with the generic name derived from the Greek words with the prefix meaning “High” and suffix meaning “bird”. The species name means massive or large, and when one looks at this creature, it’s understandable why.

Description:
At over 6ft tall at the hip and 9-10ft at the head, this was among the largest birds on the face of the earth. It weighed around 700-1,200lbs. Its close cousin, Vorombe was around the same dimensions, but bulkier, perhaps reaching weights of over 1,900lbs. It couldn’t fly as their breast bones had no keel which is an anchor point on the sternum for powerful flight muscles. Though it couldn’t fly nor grab an elephant in its talons, it was still an imposing animal to come fact-to-face with.

Taxonomy:
In terms of their relatives of other ratites, despite the fact they resemble ostriches (and are close in terms of proximity), their closest cousins are actually the tiny Kiwi of New Zealand. Which makes sense considering that most ratites from the region were part of Gondwanaland in the Cretaceous. However, studies indicate that ratites did not diversify via vicariance which means diversifying via terrestrial cousins who arrived there during the late Mesozoic, but Elephant Birds’ (and by extension other ratites) distant cousins flew to the island(s) and diversified in their various regions.

Eggs:
As mentioned, the eggs are massive. Among the largest eggs of any bird or dinosaur for that matter. Over 1ft long (13in), and a circumference of around 3ft, the volume is 160 times greater than a chicken egg. Occasionally, subfossil eggs can be found intact, interestingly, when David Attenborough visited the region in the early 60s he received a 3D jigsaw puzzle of a subfossil that was nearly complete. The entire egg could have fed an entire family with the amount of food in it, which may have contributed to the extinction of this magnificent birds (will be discussed later). It should also be noted that restored or intact eggs can go for over $40,000 at auction.
As for how many eggs a female would lay is not known, perhaps 1 or even occasionally 2 eggs. Like many ratites, the female probably would not have cared for the young, leaving the father to do all the work. He would have incubated the eggs using leaf litter to incubate them. After the young hatched, the father would care for them until they were old enough to have their own territory.

Nocturnal Behavior and Diet:
In 2018, analysis of brain endocasts indicate that the Elephant Birds (Aepyornis maximus mainly) had relatively poor eyesight but an exceptional sense of smell. Similar to their cousins the Kiwi. What this suggests is that these birds were likely nocturnal. The olfactory processes were much larger than their close relative A.hildebrandi.
In terms of their habitat, it can be extrapolated that A.maximus occupied more forested habitats across the region of Madagascar. Living in dry forested and scrub-like environments which are still around in parts of Madagascar today.
The diet is believed to have been fruit and plants. Among them would have been a coconut palm species known as Voanioala which is now threatened. It’s been theorized that Aepyornis and its close cousins would have been vital to seed dispersal across the regions it resided in. Today, the species of palm is now critically endangered. With its primary seed disperser extinct, it now persists in more remote regions.

Extinction:
As previously mentioned, it is not known if Marco Polo saw these animals and then over-emphasized the size and made up the ravenous and flight-capable behavior of these giants. Nor is it known whether Flacourt heard stories from natives in the region of southern Madagascar who saw a relict population. It’s believed that Aepyorniths went extinct at the dawn of the last millennia around 1000 A.D. to possibly as late as 1200 A.D.
While possible that their could have been a relict population, most paleontologists and archaeologists believe that Flacourt and Marco Polo heard oral stories from various villagers passed down from generation to generation.
Some people think that Aepyornis was butchered by Malagasy peoples as a food source. A sort of ecological blitzkrieg where natives destroyed their habitats and then hunted them to extinction. The youngest documented bone was dated to ~1000 A.D. with signs of butchery.
However, unlike their distant cousins, the Moas of New Zealand, there hasn’t been as much evidence of large amounts of butchery. Such as the countless middens of bones found across New Zealand where Maori engaged in mass slaughter of the 9 species of Moa. Perhaps this could be down to preservation of various. Part of this could be down to preservation biases as there aren’t as many sites compared to New Zealand with the Moas.
Though one thing that has been prevalent are countless egg fragments found in various human settlement sites. The reproductive rates were low, like most ratites, and the egg could have fed an entire family of people. There is evidence of fire on many egg fragments within known human settlements, so they were a common food source.
Another suggestion is that these animals died from diseases spread by chicken and guinea fowl. Fossil remains of Aepyorniths have been found in association with these small domesticated birds.
However these animals died off, these animals remain a symbol of Holocene extinction events from the last millennia and among the most iconic extinct ratites.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Okay, this is another one I had in reserve, planned to do it after my big project I had planned for DA, but ultimately, I decided to revise it, and give you this to hold you over.
Having seen artbyjrc ‘s art yesterday from his NZ bird collage, I decided to draw in a mound of dirt for the nest (like how he did the branch for the Haast’s Eagle). Also, I wanted to do this before he did the Elephant Birds on his DA Page.
Extinct island fauna - New Zealand 1 by artbyjrc on DeviantArt
^^^ As always, check his work out, it's amazing (compared to my nest sketch).
Now, interesting fact, the details about Aepyornis’ discovery was from an auction site, how they got such a precise date, no idea.
ART SABLON— Intact Elephant Bird egg
This was made by Lgcfm and Ulquiorra with suggestions from artbyjrc which included mainly bulking up the legs.

Will this be in Past Meets Present? As much as I'd love to show Holocene Madagascar, I can't because of the simple fact that extinct lemur models aren't available. Even my acquaintance on TRT who is making a myriad of extinct animals, will only make 2-4 species of extinct lemurs. Which is not enough.
So you'll have to settle with this profile.

Model by Ulquiorra, skin by Lgcfm edited by me:
Elephant Bird (Lgcfm & Ulquiorra) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom

Description
Aepyornis maximus
In the late 13th century (~1298), the great Venetian explorer Marco Polo made landfall on the island of Madagascar. He is largely believed to be one of the first people from the west to visit the region. On his travels, he recorded stories of a massive bird that was so big, it’d seize an elephant in its talons and carry it off into its mountain stronghold in central Madagascar. It was called the Rukh, or the Roc, but more commonly called the “Elephant Bird” because of its supposed favorite prey. It’s unknown if Marco Polo ever actually saw these birds or whether these were passed to him via word of mouth from the locals in the region.

History:
Around 450 years later, the French Governor of the island, Étienne de Flacourt recalled accounts of a large ostrich-like bird residing in remote regions of Madagascar, saying, “Vouropatra – a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places may not take it, it seeks the most lonely places”. Vouropatra is a Malagasy name which means “bird of the Ampatres” a region in southern Madagascar where a lot of material has been found. Like Marco Polo’s accounts, it is not known if these were oral legends passed down to him or actual accounts.
The real creature is likely an Aepyornith a group of ratites more commonly known as the “Elephant Birds”. There were 4 species in 3 genera, the most well-known species is the type species, Aepyornis maximus.

Eggs on the Market:
The animal was described by French Zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In 1850, he was sent fossil (or sub-fossil) material from the southwest coast of Madagascar consisting of bones, egg fragments, and a restored egg. On January 27th, 1851, he named the species, Aepyornis maximus, with the generic name derived from the Greek words with the prefix meaning “High” and suffix meaning “bird”. The species name means massive or large, and when one looks at this creature, it’s understandable why.

Description:
At over 6ft tall at the hip and 9-10ft at the head, this was among the largest birds on the face of the earth. It weighed around 700-1,200lbs. Its close cousin, Vorombe was around the same dimensions, but bulkier, perhaps reaching weights of over 1,900lbs. It couldn’t fly as their breast bones had no keel which is an anchor point on the sternum for powerful flight muscles. Though it couldn’t fly nor grab an elephant in its talons, it was still an imposing animal to come fact-to-face with.

Taxonomy:
In terms of their relatives of other ratites, despite the fact they resemble ostriches (and are close in terms of proximity), their closest cousins are actually the tiny Kiwi of New Zealand. Which makes sense considering that most ratites from the region were part of Gondwanaland in the Cretaceous. However, studies indicate that ratites did not diversify via vicariance which means diversifying via terrestrial cousins who arrived there during the late Mesozoic, but Elephant Birds’ (and by extension other ratites) distant cousins flew to the island(s) and diversified in their various regions.

Eggs:
As mentioned, the eggs are massive. Among the largest eggs of any bird or dinosaur for that matter. Over 1ft long (13in), and a circumference of around 3ft, the volume is 160 times greater than a chicken egg. Occasionally, subfossil eggs can be found intact, interestingly, when David Attenborough visited the region in the early 60s he received a 3D jigsaw puzzle of a subfossil that was nearly complete. The entire egg could have fed an entire family with the amount of food in it, which may have contributed to the extinction of this magnificent birds (will be discussed later). It should also be noted that restored or intact eggs can go for over $40,000 at auction.
As for how many eggs a female would lay is not known, perhaps 1 or even occasionally 2 eggs. Like many ratites, the female probably would not have cared for the young, leaving the father to do all the work. He would have incubated the eggs using leaf litter to incubate them. After the young hatched, the father would care for them until they were old enough to have their own territory.

Nocturnal Behavior and Diet:
In 2018, analysis of brain endocasts indicate that the Elephant Birds (Aepyornis maximus mainly) had relatively poor eyesight but an exceptional sense of smell. Similar to their cousins the Kiwi. What this suggests is that these birds were likely nocturnal. The olfactory processes were much larger than their close relative A.hildebrandi.
In terms of their habitat, it can be extrapolated that A.maximus occupied more forested habitats across the region of Madagascar. Living in dry forested and scrub-like environments which are still around in parts of Madagascar today.
The diet is believed to have been fruit and plants. Among them would have been a coconut palm species known as Voanioala which is now threatened. It’s been theorized that Aepyornis and its close cousins would have been vital to seed dispersal across the regions it resided in. Today, the species of palm is now critically endangered. With its primary seed disperser extinct, it now persists in more remote regions.

Extinction:
As previously mentioned, it is not known if Marco Polo saw these animals and then over-emphasized the size and made up the ravenous and flight-capable behavior of these giants. Nor is it known whether Flacourt heard stories from natives in the region of southern Madagascar who saw a relict population. It’s believed that Aepyorniths went extinct at the dawn of the last millennia around 1000 A.D. to possibly as late as 1200 A.D.
While possible that their could have been a relict population, most paleontologists and archaeologists believe that Flacourt and Marco Polo heard oral stories from various villagers passed down from generation to generation.
Some people think that Aepyornis was butchered by Malagasy peoples as a food source. A sort of ecological blitzkrieg where natives destroyed their habitats and then hunted them to extinction. The youngest documented bone was dated to ~1000 A.D. with signs of butchery.
However, unlike their distant cousins, the Moas of New Zealand, there hasn’t been as much evidence of large amounts of butchery. Such as the countless middens of bones found across New Zealand where Maori engaged in mass slaughter of the 9 species of Moa. Perhaps this could be down to preservation of various. Part of this could be down to preservation biases as there aren’t as many sites compared to New Zealand with the Moas.
Though one thing that has been prevalent are countless egg fragments found in various human settlement sites. The reproductive rates were low, like most ratites, and the egg could have fed an entire family of people. There is evidence of fire on many egg fragments within known human settlements, so they were a common food source.
Another suggestion is that these animals died from diseases spread by chicken and guinea fowl. Fossil remains of Aepyorniths have been found in association with these small domesticated birds.
However these animals died off, these animals remain a symbol of Holocene extinction events from the last millennia and among the most iconic extinct ratites.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Okay, this is another one I had in reserve, planned to do it after my big project I had planned for DA, but ultimately, I decided to revise it, and give you this to hold you over.
Having seen artbyjrc ‘s art yesterday from his NZ bird collage, I decided to draw in a mound of dirt for the nest (like how he did the branch for the Haast’s Eagle). Also, I wanted to do this before he did the Elephant Birds on his DA Page.
Extinct island fauna - New Zealand 1 by artbyjrc on DeviantArt
^^^ As always, check his work out, it's amazing (compared to my nest sketch).
Now, interesting fact, the details about Aepyornis’ discovery was from an auction site, how they got such a precise date, no idea.
ART SABLON— Intact Elephant Bird egg
This was made by Lgcfm and Ulquiorra with suggestions from artbyjrc which included mainly bulking up the legs.

Will this be in Past Meets Present? As much as I'd love to show Holocene Madagascar, I can't because of the simple fact that extinct lemur models aren't available. Even my acquaintance on TRT who is making a myriad of extinct animals, will only make 2-4 species of extinct lemurs. Which is not enough.
So you'll have to settle with this profile.

Model by Ulquiorra, skin by Lgcfm edited by me:
Elephant Bird (Lgcfm & Ulquiorra) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom