Emus are the second largest bird in the world, second only to the ostrich. In the not too distant past, these natural animals from Australia had three subspecies, with the dwarf emu from King Island, located in the state of Tasmania, one of them. Recently, two researchers found a bird's egg and found that the specimen is similar in size to birds on the continent.
The emu only exists in and around Australia. The bird does not fly. All three subspecies of the islands in the south of the country, Tasmania, Kangaroos and King, are only known from previous research, as the animals became extinct shortly after the arrival of European settlers. Each group was named after the island they inhabited.
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Julian Hume of the UK Natural History Museum and Christian Robertson, an island historian, found the egg. The pair described the details of the find and made stops in an article published in the scientific journal Biology Letters. Previously, no King emu eggs had been found.
Ancient studies have shown that island emus have shrunk in size because of limited resources. The King Island emu was the smallest of all, just under four feet tall and half the weight of the mainland species. The birds that still live are between 1,5 m and 1,9 m, weight between 18 kg and 60 kg.
Little is known about dwarf emus because of the animals' sudden disappearance. But before Hume and Robertson, eggs of the Tasmanian and Kangaroo species had already been found. The pair found the King Island specimen in a sand dune. After removing and inspecting, they realized that the egg was almost whole, an excellent sample for the study.
Like the eggs of the other subspecies, this one was the same size as those of the continental emu. The pair of researchers believe that the more adverse conditions on the islands made the animals spend more time inside the shell. The larger eggs allowed the birds to remain inside until they were able to walk and feed themselves, in addition to keeping them warm to survive the cold nights of the place.
Via: Phys
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