Extinct bird egg that everyone thought was a replica is for real!

Turn and move the people who work in museums scientists who come to these institutions to conduct research on items in the collections are faced with discoveries! We at Mega Curioso have even talked about some cases here, such as the mummy that was found inside a sarcophagus that was on display for 150 years and the bones of a 245 million year old dinosaur that "appeared" in the Museum. Natural History Museum.

Giant egg

Look at him there (Smithsonian.com)

For now, it was the turn of a team of scientists to discover that an egg taken as a replica of an extinct bird hundreds of years ago is no false thing! The "find" came when researchers at the Buffalo Science Museum in the US were cataloging items from the institution's collection and noticed that the egg was real. And look, we're not talking about an egg, no ...

Ovão

The artifact weighs almost 1.5 kilograms, measures more than 70 centimeters in circumference and more than 30 cm in height, and was “laid” by a native bird of Madagascar known as the “elephant bird”. You can tell it wasn't a small animal, right? These animals were about three meters high and hit 350 to 500 pounds on the scale and were obviously unable to fly.

Aepyornis maximus

Aepyornis maximus (Smithsonian.com/Wikimedia Commons)

Elephant birds were animals of the Aepyornithidae family and it is estimated that there are only 40 eggs of these animals in museums around the world. The specimen found belonged to an animal of the species Aepyornis maximus - vertebrate responsible for laying the largest eggs among any known vertebrate, including dinosaurs!

And how did the curators of the Buffalo museum find out that the egg wasn't fake? Well, going through the collection, they found the item and noticed that it looked quite real. So the team kept going through the artifacts and found the replica.

Extinct Bird Egg

It was in the wrong box (Smithsonian.com)

To confirm the suspicion, the researchers forwarded the copy to be x-rayed and then authenticated. Now, think about us ... if this sort of thing happens often enough, imagine how many things cannot be discovered lost in forgotten museum collections!

Check out the related stories we have selected for you:

  • Sarcophagus kept in museum for 150 years kept a mummy - and no one knew
  • World's oldest female tattoo identified in 5, 000-year-old mummy
  • Fragments of old flying saucer found in British museum

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