An Estimated Weight of the Largest Known Bird

Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes)

“…Dinornis giganteus, the largest representative of the 13 species of moas (Dinornithidae), known from New Zeeland (Cracraft, 1976), had a body-mass estimated at weighing 230 to 240 kg (Amadon, 1947), or 278 kg (Campbell Jr. & Marcus, 1992), it most certainly hav- ing been the tallest bird that existed, apparent by the erect posture and long cervical column. According to the measurements presented by Cracraft (1976), the length of the bones of the hind-limbs of Dinornis giganteus is very near to the length of the same bones in Aepyornis maximus, in the latter, however, the diameter of these bones being much more larger.…”

“…In the present work we compared the measurements of some phorusrhacids (diameter of the hind-limb bones) with the same measurements of homologous bones of the ratite birds, or other land birds, with a known mass/ size. Several data on bone and body mass measurements of large present-day and fossil birds were obtained in the publications of Amadon (1947) and Wetmore (1967).…”

Preliminary assessment of bone histology in the extinct elephant bird Aepyornis (Aves, Palaeognathae) from Madagascar

“…The present consensus is that seven species once occurred on Madagascar (Davis, 2002;Goodman and Jungers, 2014;Lamberton, 1934). Aepyornis maximus, the largest known aepyornithid, is the most massive bird ever discovered, and could reach a height of 3 m and a weight close to 400 kg (Amadon, 1947;Monnier,1913). This gigantic bird deposited the largest known eggs, which exceeded 7.0 L in volume (Hawkins and Goodman, 2003).…”

Phorusrhacids: the Terror Birds

“…Among the giant birds of the Tertiary, they are the only present-day survivors. The elephant-bird, Aepyornis maximus, a ratite from Madagascar that died out around 700 years ago, is probably the biggest bird ever found (Amadon, 1947;Wetmore, 1967).…”