14 DAY TRIAL // This past Wednesday, a fossilized elephant bird egg fetched a whopping $101,813 (€78,299.6) at an auction in London. The person who won this auction has thus far chosen to remain anonymous.
Specialists say that the egg most likely dates back to before the 17th century.
By the looks of it, there was a time when the elephant birds were a rather common sight on the island of Madagascar, which happened to be the only portion of land they inhabited.
Unfortunately, the species became extinct at some point between the 14th and 17th century. Specialists believe that humans were the ones responsible for the demise of the elephant birds, sources report.
Thus, their enormous eggs, which measured about 8.75 inches (about 22.22 centimeters) in diameter, would have constituted a great source of proteins back in those days.
Elephant birds grew as tall as 10-11 feet (3.04 – 3.35 meters) and weighed about 1,000 pounds (453.5 kilograms). Because of their size, they were unable to fly.