‘Biggest bird’ ever dispute put to nest

PARIS — After more than a century of conflicting evidence, scientists said on Wednesday they have finally solved the riddle of the world’s largest bird.

For 60 million years the colossal, flightless elephant bird — Aepyornis maximus — stalked the savanna and rain forests of Madagascar until it was hunted to extinction around 1,000 years ago.

In the 19th century, a new breed of buccaneering European zoologist obsessed over the creature, pillaging skeletons and fossilized eggs to prove they had discovered the biggest bird on Earth.

But a study released on Wednesday by British scientists suggests that one species of elephant bird was even larger than previously thought, with a specimen weighing an estimated 860 kilograms — 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.

In the study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Hanson said his research proved that Vorombe titan —Malagasy for “big bird” — would have stood at least 3 meters tall, and had an average weight of 650 kg, making it the largest bird genus yet uncovered.

The elephant bird belonged to the same family of flightless animals that today includes the kiwi, emu and ostrich.