The intact egg of a bird weighs half a ton

The fossilized elephant egg is 30cm long and in the museum collection in New York and remains intact after hundreds of years.

When people first arrived in Madagascar about 1,500 years ago, they encountered a series of particularly extinct animals such as the big monkey lemur, giant tortoises, tiny hippopotamus and birds. Unbelievably long-necked massive body wanders in the island forests and spawns the largest of the vertebrates, including dinosaurs, according to Smithsonian.com.

Elephant bird eggs in Buffalo Science Museum.(Photo: Smithsonian).

, is a high-value food source for residents of Madagascar. With the equivalent of 150 eggs, an elephant bird egg can feed many families. Humans looted the elephant's nest, contributing to pushing them to the brink of extinction. Today, this type of bird's egg remains very small, with less than 40 preserved at museums. Therefore, staff at the Buffalo Science Museum in New York, USA, are excited to find it. an intact elephant egg mixed in the scale collection here.

The Buffalo Science Museum has accumulated collections for more than a century and is in the process of updating its catalog, some of the exhibits are only stored on the card and ledger. While importing catalog data into the museum's computer system, Paige Langle, who manages the collection of zoology, opens the cabinet for a long time. Inside the drawer is a giant cream-colored egg. The egg is 30.5cm long, has a circumference of 71cm and weighs more than 1.4kg. It is labeled as model.

However, Langle was immediately skeptical because the egg looked too real for a model."I tried lifting it up, but the closer I looked at the surface of the eggshell and felt its weight, the more I thought this was definitely the egg," Langle said.

Langle was right. Looking more closely in the collections, Langle discovered a simulation of the elephant bird egg as a real model. Later, the museum staff looked in the warehouse and found a note showing the museum bought a fossilized elephant bird egg from a London specimen supplier in 1939. They also found the letter because The museum manager wrote the various items he wanted to buy for the bird exhibition, including the elephant bird eggs.

Museum staff sent samples to New York University, Buffalo, for X-rays and assessments. Conservation experts not only confirmed the egg is real but also identified it as fertilized. They can distinguish yolk sacs and indicate white patches that show a young bird forming a shape.

Kathryn Leacock, museum director, hopes the new specimen will be useful for professionals interested in elephant birds. This great bird has some specimens. The largest specimen is three meters tall and weighs about 454 kg. Elephant extinction is relatively fast after humans arrive in Madagascar. The last elephant bird was seen in the 17th century.