Re: SV: Favorite Paleotrivia?

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Quoting Tommy Tyrberg <tommy.tyrberg@norrkoping.mail.telia.com>:

> An egg of the extinct Madagascar ratite Aepyornis has been found in West
> Australia. Opinion is divided whether it floated there, or was brought
> by humans in prehistoric times. Both seem unlikely.

I seem to remember that the Western Australian elephant-bird eggs (two of them) 
were discovered 
in coastal sand dunes, which makes it highly likely that they floated there 
across the Indian ocean. 
It's only an 8,000 km trip!

Given that elephant birds often layed their eggs in beach dunes, and that 
storms must have 
dislodged thousands of them during the species's temporal range, the fact that 
at least two (that 
we know of) managed to make the trip intact isn't so unlikely. They're fairly 
hardy eggs after all.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist              http://geo_cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia             http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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