Elephant birds are nocturnal and blind

According to a University of Texas study, the elephant bird - an estimated 3-meter high flying bird - has lived with humans before becoming extinct 500 to 1,000 years ago.

Researchers at the University of Texas say the bird, once living in Madagascar, is a nocturnal species and is likely to be blind , based on studying its brain shape. This discovery has just been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royals Society B.

Scientists digitally reconstructed the brains of this extinct bird in their study, and knew that their visual lobe was almost missing, a trait that showed them as nocturnal and ability to see nothing.

Elephant birds are flightless birds.

Previously, researchers believed that elephants were quite similar to other large, unknown flying birds, such as Australian ostriches and African ostriches. These birds are active in daylight and have good vision.

BBC News reports that this elephant bird weighs half a ton and lays eggs larger than most dinosaur eggs.

According to Christopher Torres, a graduate student in research, and Julia Clarke, a professor at the University of Texas School of Geosciences, this bird's brain study takes them to completely different outcomes.

"No one ever suspected that elephants were nocturnal," Torres said in a university statement. Some studies of their behavior clearly suggest that they work during the daytime. '

Researching the elephant's brain shows that it is a nocturnal species.

Torres said he thinks humans are probably related to the extinction of the bird.'Humans have lived together, and even hunted, elephants for thousands of years. But in fact we still don't know anything about their lives. We don't even know exactly when and why they become extinct. '

Researchers also found that the part of the brain that processes scent helped explain the elephant bird's habitat. The species is larger in two large olfactory elephant birds, a trait associated with living in the forest.

The smaller elephant bird also seems to have a better vision, meaning it probably works at dusk rather than in the dark.

Clarke said: 'These details not only tell us about the life of the elephant bird, but also the life in general in Madagascar in ancient times. About 500 years ago, the giant, flightless, almost blind bird flared in Madagascar's forests in the dark. No one ever thought of that. '