Aepyornithidae

Elephant birds are extinct flightless birds belonging to the order Aepyornithiformes that were native to the island of Madagascar. They are thought to have gone extinct around 1000 AD, likely as a result of human activity. There are three currently recognised species, one in the genus Mullerornis, and two in Aepyornis. Aepyornis maximus is possibly the largest bird to have ever lived, with their eggs being the largest known for any amniote. Elephant birds were herbivores and major components of Madagascar's pre-human ecosystems. Elephant birds are palaeognaths, and their closest living relatives are kiwi, suggesting that ratites did not diversify by vicariance during the breakup of Gondwana but instead convergently evolved flightlessness from ancestors that dispersed more recently by flying.

Aepyornithidae

Monnier · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
elephant birdPBDB
Sits inside
AepyornithiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene — about 9 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Aepyornithidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

17 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Nawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°EMaradah — 28.00°N, 20.50°E

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The named rock units Aepyornithidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aepyornithidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aepyornithidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

262 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Aepyornithidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

8 references

Each of the 17 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Aepyornithidae

Credit
Monnier
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aepyornithidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAepyornithiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1853