An international team of researchers has discovered how to extract DNA from fossilized bird eggs--including the eggshell of the enormous elephant bird that went extinct four centuries ago. In a research breakthrough, scientists were able to isolate DNA from the eggshells of not just the extinct giant moa bird from New Zealand, but also a 19,000-year-old emu from Australia and the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar. The elephant bird's egg is the largest known bird egg, with
160 times the volume of a chicken's egg [New Scientist].
