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To those that celebrate, have a Happy Easter!
Context: Elephant birds only went extinct around 800-1100 AD/CE, meaning that they were contemporaries to the early middle age civilizations of that era. They also laid the biggest eggs of any animal.
So here, a Norman Knight, through impossible means, got an elephant bird egg, and praises the heavens as he painted the BIGGEST easter egg!
Elephant Bird (Aepyornis maximus) - possibly the largest bird in history, with some estimates reaching 1,000kg. The genus was endemic to Madagascar, with two species, the smaller A. hildebrandti and A. maximus (which, according to the latest research includes Vorombe Titan). Aepyornis maximus was sexually dimorphic, with females being much larger than males. Until recently they were thought to be a separate genus, the Vorombe titan. However, recent studies of their DNA show that they're genetically identical and belong to the same species.
Aepyornis had the largest egg of any known bird, dinosaur or amniote in general, with a volume of 5.6-13 litres. There is an almost complete skeleton of Aepyornis from an intact egg, which is much more robust than hatchlings of other ratites such as emus or ostriches.
In 2014, successfully sequenced DNA answered the question of the origin of these giant birds and their place in taxonomy - their closest living relative is a kiwi. The two diverged about 54 million years ago and both, like most ratites, became flightless independently.
Similar to the kiwi, Aepyornis maximus had reduced optic lobes, suggesting a nocturnal lifestyle. A. maximus had relatively large olfactory bulbs, larger than its relative, A. hildebranti, resulting in a greater sense of smell.
Isotope analasis suggest that the A. maximus were a browser, combing all this knowledge we can say that these giant birds were nocturnal, heavily reliant on smell, giant herbivore, living in dense forest, type of habitat that began to disappear with the arrival of humans. Elephant birds became extinct about 1000 years ago. The reason for this is, of course, was man. But it's not clear if it was just hunting, we're not sure of when humans arrived and colonised Madagascar. The archaeological sites suggest that humans arrived no earlier than 1,500 years ago. However, there are Aepyornis bones with cut marks dating back to 10,000 years ago.
It is possible that humans only recently colonised Madagascar, around 1,500 years ago, but may have visited or accidentally crashed on the island earlier. Either way, there were probably many causes for the extinction of Aepyornis, similar to other megafauna of Madagascar.
Hunting, theft of eggs, transfer of hyperdiseases from livestock and finally massive deforestation as a result of agricultural fires, which continues to this day, have turned Madagascar into a burning paradise, endangering the remaining biodiversity.
Large Birds Among Us poster
A variety of large birds shared the planet with humans and other hominins during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Discover where the dodo, elephant bird, and Titanis lived with this amazing poster.
252mya.com/birdsmap
Art by Joschua Knüppe
DMM ROUND FOUR MASTERPOST
ORNITHISCHIAN FINAL MATCHUP:
Changmiania vs Jakapil
SAUROPODOMORPH FINAL MATCHUP:
Kholumolumo vs Bajadasaurus
NON-NEORNITHINE THEROPOD FINAL MATCHUP:
Berthasaura vs Caihong
NEORNITHINE FINAL MATCHUP:
Vorombe vs Heracles
REBLOG! SHARE! DEBATE!
IT'S DINOSAUR MARCH MADNESS!
Vote for Annakacygna!
First off, it's a weird and enormous swan, which is pretty cool on its own, but more importantly, Vorombe is sadly not in the spirit of Dinosaur March Madness: Rising Stars. When it was most likely its own genus, Vorombe would have been a worthy contender, but given the paper indicating it may not be distinct from Aepyornis, this is no longer the case. This year's contest is meant to celebrate recent discoveries, and while a new and informative fossil of a preexisting bird is exciting, it just wouldn't be right for that to win the bird bracket over something truly distinct. I'd hate to have the top bird (or even DMM winner) need to have an asterisk by its name. I have hope that Heracles or Cryptogyps has a chance to defeat Vorombe in the next round, but it's not a guarantee. This is a humble request to consider this factor if you haven't already voted this round.
P.S.: If your reason to vote for Vorombe is that it reminds you of Harambe, I'm sorry, but I don't care for that joke in general and it's hardly a reason for a DMM vote
A selection of new dinosaurs named in 2018.
Round Three: Vorombe vs Annakacygna
Vorombe titan
Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Titan of the Big Birds
Time: 10,000 years ago to sometime in the past 2000 years (Holocene epoch of the Quaternary period)
Location: Southern Madagascar
Vorombe is a newly erected genus of Elephant Bird, the largest that we know of! Whereas all species of Elephant Bird used to be put in the same genus, distinct differences among the types of Elephant Bird that we know of indicate they deserve their own genus names - and here we are! Vorombe was significantly larger than the other species of Elephant Bird, and probably was about 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) tall when standing. It was also ridiculously heavy, weighing around 650 kilograms. As such, Vorombe is currently the largest known bird ever recorded. It lived in the arid and succulent woodlands as well as the grassland mosaics, the weirdly unique habitats that charactierize Madagascar, and was a major feature in the functioning of those ecosystem - helping to spread plant seeds and maintain habitats as they lived within them. Vorombe and other Elephant Birds lived alongside a lot of weird animals during the Quaternary of Madadgascar, including dwarf hippos, giant tortoises, and giant lemurs.
Note: A paper came out literally on the last day of February this year indicating Vorombe may not be its own genus. More work is needed to determine if this bird is distinct from Aepyornis.
Annakacygna hajimei, A. yoshiiensis
Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Swan from Annaka (Hajime’s or of Yoshii-machi)
Time: 11.5 million years ago (Tortonian stage of the Miocene epoch, Neogene period)
Location: Haraichi Formation, Annaka, Japan
Annakacygna was dubbed during its research “the ultimate bird”, and honestly, I don’t even blame the scientists for doing so - I may have even done the same. Both large species of swan, A. hajimei was about the size of a black swan, and A. yoshiiensis was larger than even the mute swan. They were weird in so many ways it boggles the mind: they were adapted for filter feeding in the water, their wings and tails were so flexible they could form a cradle for their young on their backs like modern mute swangs, said tails and wings were probably great and flashy display structures, its head was extremely large weird looking and had a slightly spoon-like bill, they had wide and heavy vertebrae but still had long and flexible necks, it may have even been a flightless bird or at least a poor flier based on its sternum and coracoids, though its scapula is extremely strong and unlike flightless animals - more research is needed to better understand this aspect of its mobility. That said, it did have very short wing birds, weirdly curved and short among birds, with weirdly shaped finger bones coming together to create weirdly formed curved wings. Its hips were arched up, creating a dip in its back, and it had narrow leg bones, allowing for efficient movement in the water like living *grebes and loons*. So while it had this whole weird display structure with its wings and tail going on, and its robust but long neck, and that strangely boat-shaped body (what the actual f-), it was zooming through the water like a grebe or loon. It had a similar beak to living shovelers, possibly, and it could move its jaw back and forth in a seesaw like motion, not like any living swans. It could then filter food through its jaws via this motion, eating a variety of plankton through soft lamellae within its bill. It was probably very social, given its display structures, and communicated both vocally (imagine the power of those calls with that robust neck) and visually. Annakacygna also took care of its young, extensively, keeping them on their back protected in their wings, to the point that they may not have spent much time on land (like living loons and grebes). It wasn’t a deep diver, but was stable at sea while foraging on food and moving along the surface of the water, living primarily in the ocean. Found in a marine environment, Annakacygna lived with sharks, seals, many kinds of whales, and desmostylians.
Vorombe or Annakacygna?
Vorombe
Annakacygna
Round Two: Vorombe vs Asteriornis
Vorombe titan
Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Titan of the Big Birds
Time: 10,000 years ago to sometime in the past 2000 years (Holocene epoch of the Quaternary period)
Location: Southern Madagascar
Vorombe is a newly erected genus of Elephant Bird, the largest that we know of! Whereas all species of Elephant Bird used to be put in the same genus, distinct differences among the types of Elephant Bird that we know of indicate they deserve their own genus names - and here we are! Vorombe was significantly larger than the other species of Elephant Bird, and probably was about 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) tall when standing. It was also ridiculously heavy, weighing around 650 kilograms. As such, Vorombe is currently the largest known bird ever recorded. It lived in the arid and succulent woodlands as well as the grassland mosaics, the weirdly unique habitats that charactierize Madagascar, and was a major feature in the functioning of those ecosystem - helping to spread plant seeds and maintain habitats as they lived within them. Vorombe and other Elephant Birds lived alongside a lot of weird animals during the Quaternary of Madadgascar, including dwarf hippos, giant tortoises, and giant lemurs.
Note: A paper came out literally on the last day of February this year indicating Vorombe may not be its own genus. More work is needed to determine if this bird is distinct from Aepyornis.
Asteriornis maastrichtensis
Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Asteria’s Maastrichtian Bird
Time: 66.8 million years ago (Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous_
Location: Maastricht Formation, Eben-Emael, Belgium
Say hello to the Wonderchicken! While we know that modern dinosaurs - birds - had to have evolved in the Mesozoic, and diversified somewhat during it, actual fossil representatives of Mesozoic modern birds are quite rare, with only a few duck-related taxa (Vegavis and Teviornis) known. Asteriornis finally adds a stem-chicken to that group, which we knew had to have been around since we had stem-ducks! (They diverged at the same time, so the presence of stem-ducks requires the presence of stem-chickens). A small, long-legged bird, Asteriornis had a lot of characteristics similar to both chickens and ducks, indicating it may have evolved right after that initial divergence. It had a slightly down-curved beak without specializations, allowing it to have a generalist diet. It had wings similar to living ground birds, and that combined with its long legs indicates a terrestrial lifestyle. Living along the coast, Asteriornis would have eaten whatever it could forage for, possibly wading into the water or trekking through high vegetation when necessary. It lived near the ocean, along the coast, and as such it shared its habitat with many types of invertebrates, including corals and echinoderms and crustaceans, as well as ammonites. Surrounded by grasses, palms, and shrubs, Asteriornis also lived alongside other vertebrates such as a wide variety of sharks, tons of mosasaurs, turtles, elasmosaurs, marsupials, and other dinosaurs such as Orthomerus, Janavis, large theropods, an unknown opposite-bird, and other potential Ornithurans.
Vorombe or Asteriornis?
Vorombe
Asteriornis
