The half-toned bird suspected of being massacred to extinction

The bones of a three-meter-tall, 500-kilogram elephant bird found on the island of Madagascar have cuts and cuts left by prehistoric hunters.

The team of scientists led by the London Zoological Society (ZSL) studies the skeleton of two giant birds found on Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, Fox News reported yesterday.Aepyornis and Mullerornis are two species of elephants, three meters tall and weigh up to 500kg.

Researchers unearthed elephants' bones at the site of the Christmas River, Madagascar.(Photo: BBC).

The bones were found in 2009 at the site of the Christmas River in Madagascar. Marks of cuts and cracks in solid bones left by prehistoric hunters, according to experts. Using radioactive carbon dating, the team found that elephants were slaughtered some 10,500 years ago.

This study is important because research on femur and other artifacts indicates that people came to Madagascar for the first time 2,400 - 4,000 years ago. Detecting bones is cut so that people come to the island much earlier than previously speculated. Scientists publish their research in Science Advances magazine.

The new study also raises debate as to whether humans are responsible for the extinction of the elephant bird."We know that the Madagascar fauna, including the elephant, hippopotamus, tortoise and giant lemur, was extinct less than 1,000 years ago. There are several theories about why this happened, but the degree of relevance. "It is still unclear," said Dr. James Hansford of ZSL's Zoology Institute, who led the research.

According to research results, humans can live with elephants for millennia."Our research provides evidence that humans are active in Madagascar earlier than 6,000 years from speculation. People seem to have lived with elephants and species that are now extinct for more than 9,000 years, and less negatively affects the ecosystem in most of this time, " said Dr. Hansford.

Elephant bird egg next to normal chicken eggs.(Photo: BBC).

However, there are still many questions to be answered about humans in Madagascar in the beginning."We know by the end of the Ice Age, when humans used only tools, there was a group of people who went to Madagascar. We didn't know their source until we found more archaeological evidence, but we knew. There is no genetic evidence of them in modern people. The question remains, who are these people? When did they disappear and why? " , Professor Patricia Wright at Stony Brook University, co-author of the study, shared.

The swamp, where the elephant bones are found, contains large numbers of ancient animal carcasses. Experts speculate that this could be a large slaughter site that prehistoric people used to slaughter their prey. Earlier this year, the Buffalo Science Museum in New York, shared images of elephant eggs in a mislabeled collection for decades.