Largest bird egg ever
- Who
- Elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus)
- What
- 33 cm / 8.5 litres dimension(s)
- Where
- Madagascar
- When
- 1,000 years ago
The extinct Madagascan elephant bird Aepyornis maximus (or possibly Vorombe titan) laid eggs measuring up to 33 cm (13 in) long and with a liquid capacity of 8.5 litres (2.25 US gallons). The latter is the equivalent of seven ostrich eggs, 150-180 chicken eggs or more than 12,000 hummingbird eggs!
Elephant birds became extinct about 1,000 years ago and were endemic to the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa.
Its eggs were the largest ever single cell to have existed, and were bigger than any known dinosaur eggs.