Madagascar is home to some of the world’s most unique and remarkable species. However, one of its most awe-inspiring ...

Elephant birds were flightless birds that went extinct around 1,000 years ago. It is believed that one species of the […] ...

The team initially set out in 2006 to collect elephant bird eggshells from the dry, southern half of the island. When an unaffiliated researcher used bone fragments to solve this evolutionary mystery ...

One of those species, A. maximus, had long been considered the heaviest elephant bird, until a British scientist in 1894 claimed to have discovered an even larger species, Aepyornis titan.

The team set out to collect elephant bird eggshells in 2006 from the southern half of Madagascar. Another researcher beat them to it, so the team instead focused on northern half of the island, CU ...

The elephant bird was the heaviest bird to ever walk the earth. Also, its eggs were 150 times the size of a chicken egg and thick as a dinner plate.

Elephant birds were the world’s largest flightless bird -- weighing half a ton and standing more than 10 feet tall -- before becoming extinct in the mid-1600s. ‘The egg has a great social history.

And yet, elephant birds were so impressive that they may have inspired myths of the roc, or Rukh, a gigantic flighted bird with a reputation for carrying off elephants and other large animals to eat.

The elephant bird research field team in May 2007 in northeastern Madagascar. From left: Ramil, lead guide from the National Museum in Antananarivo, Gifford Miller, Steve DeVogel and a local guide.

Hundreds of elephant seals dead as bird flu hits Antarctic, raising fears penguins could be next “If the virus reaches those populations, they are in threat of extinction," one expert told New ...

Elephant seals in South America died in massive numbers because the bird flu virus acquired mutations that allowed it to spread among mammals, according to a new study. The research offers the ...