‘Biggest bird’ dispute put to rest

One species of elephant bird weighed about 860 kg: Study

Scientists said on Wednesday that they have finally solved the riddle of the world’s largest bird.

A study released on Wednesday by British scientists suggested that one species of elephant bird was even larger than previously thought, with a specimen weighing an estimated 860 kg — about the same as a fully grown giraffe. “They would have towered over people,” said James Hansford, lead author at the Zoological Society of London. “They definitely couldn’t fly as they couldn’t have supported anywhere near their weight.”

Bones examined

In the study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Mr. Hansford examined elephant bird bones found around the world, feeding their dimensions into a machine-learned algorithm to create a spread of expected animal sizes.

Named Vorombe titan — Malagasy for “big bird” — the creature would have stood at least three metres (10 feet) tall, and had an average weight of 650 kg.

“At the extreme extent we found one bone that really pushed the limits of what we now understand about bird size,” he said, referring to the 860-kg specimen.

Source: The Hindu, 26/09/2018