Museum realizes collection's rare elephant bird egg is real
A Buffalo museum has made a rare discovery within its own collection: a fully intact egg from the extinct elephant bird that until now, was thought to be fake.
Curators at the Buffalo Museum of Science were cataloging pieces in the museum's collection when they realized and confirmed that the foot-tall egg had been mislabeled as a model. Measuring 28 inches (71 centimeters) around, it weighs more than 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms).
The flightless elephant bird was native to Madagascar. It grew to be 10 feet (3 meters) tall, weighed between 770 (349 kilograms) and 1,100 pounds (499 kilograms) and laid the largest eggs of any vertebrate, including dinosaurs.
The museum will unveil the egg to the public May 1.
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Museum realizes collection's rare elephant bird egg is real (2018, April 25)
retrieved 25 April 2024
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