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The Conversation
The Conversation
Matthew James Collins, Professor of Palaeoproteomics, University of Cambridge

How we cracked the mystery of Australia's prehistoric giant eggs

The giant bird Genyornis went extinct in Australia around 50,000 years ago. Gifford Miller, Author provided

It’s a long-running Australian detective story. From the 1980s onwards, researchers found eggshell fragments, and on rare occasions whole eggs, exposed in eroding sand dunes within the country’s arid zone (which covers most of Australia’s landmass).

A proportion of shells matched eggs laid by emus, but the rest belonged to a mystery species. Researchers initially identified the eggshells as belonging to a giant, extinct bird called Genyornis. But more recently, a group of scientists challenged this view.

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