The first extinct lions, also known as King Island emu, were discovered by a local historian and researcher at the British Museum of Natural History, according to PhysOrg’s Science and Education News portal.
In their study published in Biology Letters, Julian Hume and Christian Robertson describe in detail Find it and compare it to other already extinct dwarf eggs emu as well as emu living on the Australian continent.
The emu is a flightless bird that is native to Australia and its neighboring islands. Currently, the emu bird is the second largest bird in the world after the ostrich.
Previous research has shown that in addition to the emu plant native to the Australian continent, there were many dwarf emu species on the islands off the southern coast of Australia, but all of them became extinct soon after the arrival of European settlers
Tasmania, Kangaroo Island and King’s Island also had their own varieties, Which bore the name of the island it was home to. Previous research indicated that these fatalities have diminished due to the islands’ limited resources. Of the three, King Island Emu was the smallest, It was barely a meter tall, and weighed half the weight of its relative on the Australian continent.
Due to their sudden extinction, little is known about the dwarf emu. Researchers have so far managed to discover and study several eggs of the Tasmanian emu and one egg from Kangaroo Island in EMU. The eggs are now found for the first time from King Island emu.
A valuable find was found in sand dunes. An almost intact egg provides an excellent opportunity for researchers to study.Experts found that the King Island Emu eggs, like other dwarf Emus, were roughly the same size as the eggs of their larger relative.
According to the researchers, due to the harsh weather conditions on the islands, the emu who lived there had to stay in their eggshell shelter for a longer period of time.
The larger eggshells allowed them to survive until they learned to walk and get food for themselves. Perhaps the eggshells also keep them warm on cold nights.
