What is the largest bird who has ever lived?

elephant birds, members of the families aepyornis and mullernis are a group of extinct birds that include the largest bird ever walking on the ground, aepyornis maximus, sometimes simply known as a bird. The elephant bird disappeared around 1649, shortly after Europeans first arrived at the island where they lived, Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa. The largest bird ever lived was completely free from flight and ate large fruit. It reached more than 3.3 m (10 ft) in height, with a weight approaching 454 kg (1,000 lb) or half a ton. Only the giant MOA in New Zealand (also extinct) was higher, but was much slightly built. At that time, the giant Moa was the second largest bird in the world. The elephant bird had a more massive building and would be impermeable for medium -sized predatory mammals. The only predators that the elephant Bird would have to worry about Nile Crocodil and people who would attack their nest for his gigantic eggs. Have encountered Indian and Arabic traders who visited the island in7th, 8th and 9th centuries who supported their demands by bringing domestic eggs through the perimeter of three feet.

The largest bird in the world was also the well -known Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Mongol Empire, who ordered explorer Marco Polo to explore the news of giant birds on the island of Madagascar. This occurred at the end of 1200, but the polo never gave birds. It is assumed that the elephant bird was an inspiration for a gigantic bird called "Roc" in the stories of Sindbad and Marco Polo, even though the elephant bird was herbivore, unlike Carnivory Roc.

Elephant Bird was a type of bird called amate, with a body plan similar to today's Cassowies, Emus and ostriches. All these birds are free of flight and lack the "keel" of the breast that provides the points of anchoring for the wing muscles. Due to the lack of predators on the island, the bird of elephants probably did not have the same running ability of other rattit and would be a duck for predators as theyDogs as soon as they were introduced to Europeans. The elephant bird lived so recently that sometimes there were his non -socket eggs, sometimes containing a positional embryo.