Meaning of elephant bird | Babel Free

Definitions

Any of the very large extinct flightless birds that make up the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis within family Aepyornithidae, and lived in Madagascar until the 17th or 18th century; especially †Aepyornis maximus.

Equivalents

Examples

“The fossil record is also poor for moa and the aepyornid elephant birds, in that both are mainly known from remains that date from historical times.”

“Another very notable feature of Madagascar was the elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus), an enormous relative of the ostrich which reached 3 m in height.”

“All^([of order Struthioniformes]) except tinamous are flightless; they include the largest birds ever known (moas and elephant birds) and the largest living bird (Ostrich).”

CEFR level