Elephant Bird Egg

A magnificent, massive egg, a testament to the now extinct elephant bird. Giant Aepyornis eggs are prized by collectors, with only about a dozen around the world. This enchanting egg is nearly complete, and reconstructed from the pieces of a single original egg, unlike most known composite eggs. The gargantuan elephant bird was a fascinating specimen, the largest bird that ever lived.
Skillfully preserved, this wondrous egg sparks curiosity of a time long ago. Contained to the island of Madagascar, Aepyornis eggs were a highly valuable food source for early settlers. This long necked, flightless bird laid the largest eggs of any known vertebrate, including dinosaurs. They stood 10 ft tall and weighed 1,000 pounds. In 1298, the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo mentioned an elephant bird in one of his narratives, after the birds were believed extinct between 1000 –1200 C.E.