Aepyornis hildebrandti Burckhardt, 1893:127
Hildebrandt's elephant bird
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Aepyornis lentus Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, 1894, p. 124; Aepyornis gracilis Monnier, 1913, p. 15
Conservation Status
Extinct
Distribution
Madagascar
Biology & Ecology
Collagen value (Joseph & Seymour, 2022).
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Burckhardt, R. (1893). Über Aepyornis. Paläontologische Abhandlungen 2(6): 127-145.
Other references:
Angst, Delphine and Buffetaut, Eric. (Due October 2017). Palaeobiology of Extinct Giant Flightless Birds. ISTE Press.
Brodkorb, Pierce. (1963). Catalogue of fossil birds. Part 1 (Archaeopterygiformes through Ardeiformes). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 7, 4: 179-293.
Chinsamy, Anusuya et al. (2020). Bone histology yields insights into the biology of the extinct elephant birds (Aepyornithidae) from Madagascar. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaa013 [Abstract]
Endo, H. et al. (2012). Coxa Morphologically Adapted to Large Egg in Aepyornithid Species Compared with Various Palaeognaths. Anatomia Histologia Embryologia 41(1): 31-40. [Abstract]
Grealy, Alicia et al. (2023). Molecular exploration of fossil eggshell uncovers hidden lineage of giant extinct bird. Nature Communications 14: 914. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36405-3
Hansford, James P. and Turvey, Samuel T. (2018). Unexpected diversity within the extinct elephant birds (Aves: Aepyornithidae) and a new identity for the world's largest bird. R. Soc. open sci. 5: 181295.
Hansford, James P. et al. (2018). Early Holocene human presence in Madagascar evidenced by exploitation of avian megafauna. Science Advances 4(9): eaat6925.
Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser.
Joseph, Grant S. and Seymour, Colleen L. (2022). Are Madagascar's obligate grazing-lawns ancient and evolved with endemic herbivores, or recently selected by introduced cattle? Biology Letters 18: 20220212.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0212
Knox, Alan G. and Walters, Michael P. (1994). Extinct and endangered birds in the collections of The Natural History Museum. British Ornithologists' Club Occasional Publications 1: 1-292. [p. 277]
Lambrecht, Kàlmàn. (1933). Handbuch der Palaeornithologie. Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin. 1024 pp.
Mitchell, Kieren J., Llamas, Bastien, Soubrier, Julien, Rawlence, Nicolas J., Worthy, Trevor H., Wood, Jamie, Lee, Michael S. Y. and Cooper, Alan. (2014). Ancient DNA reveals elephant birds and kiwi are sister taxa and clarifies ratite bird evolution. Science 344(6186): 898-900.
Milne-Edwards, A. and Grandidier, A. (1894). Observations sur les Aepyornis de Madagascar. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences 118: 122-127.
Rothschild, Lionel Walter. (1907). Extinct birds: an attempt to write in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times, that is within the last six or seven hundred years: to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction. London: Hutchinson & Co. XXIX + 243 pp. [p. 228]
Samonds, Karen E. et al. (2019). A new late Pleistocene subfossil site (Tsaramody, Sambaina basin, central Madagascar) with implications for the chronology of habitat and megafaunal community change on Madagascar’s Central Highlands. Journal of Quaternary Science 34(6): 379-392. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3096
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Torres, Christopher R. and Clarke, Julia A. (2018). Nocturnal giants: evolution of the sensory ecology in elephant birds and other palaeognaths inferred from digital brain reconstructions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1540 [Abstract]
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Worthy, Trevor H. (2009). Fossil Birds. In: Gillespie, R., Clague, D. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Islands. Encyclopedias of the Natural World, No. 2. University of California Press.