Aepyornithiformes

The order of the Aépyornithiformes gathers the only family of the Aépyornithidés, or bird-elephants (term invented by Marco Polo), which includes/understands two kinds, the † Aepyornis and the † Mullerornis. All the species of this kind are extinct today. They would be at the origin of the legend of the Rokh.

These birds, which lived with Madagascar, are extinct at least since the sixteenth century. The aepyornis was the largest bird of the world, measuring more than three meters in height and weighing close to a semitone.

The National Geographic Society of Washington has an egg of intact of aepyornis, containing a skeleton of a bird nonborn.

It was thought a long time that the extinction of the birds of this family was due to the human action, but a recent study (2000) undertaken by archeologists of the universities of Sheffield and Royal Holloway shows that it is not even known if these birds were driven out for their meat.

List kinds and species

Aepyornis

Aepyornis gracilis Monnier, 1913
Aepyornis hildebrandti Burckhardt, 1893
Aepyornis maximus Geoffroy-Saint Hilaire, 1851
Aepyornis middle finger Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1866

Mulleornis

Mullerornis betsilei Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894
Mullerornis agilis Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894
Mullerornis rudis Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894

See too

List of the species of birds disappeared

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