Massive, Extinct Elephant Bird Egg Sold for Double its Estimate at London Auction

A partially fossilized egg laid by the massive elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.

 About 100 times the size of a chicken egg, the elephant bird egg is larger even than dinosaur eggs. The 10-foot-tall flightless creatures once inhabited Madagascar, resembling massive ostriches. Scientists currently believe that its extinction was the result of human activity--it's very possible that their massive eggs were sought out to feed entire families. Like the dodo bird, the elephant bird officially became extinct at some point between the 13^th and 17^thcenturies.

The egg itself was put up on the block today at Christie's auction house in London. Although it was first expected to sell for roughly $45,000, it easily surpassed that estimate; it instead was auctioned off for a whopping $101,813. The auction house believes that the price is well worth it. It's rare for someone to part with these types of items.

So who exactly was the buyer of this enormous egg? Good question. It was sold to an anonymous buyer over the phone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding, according to Fox News.

This wasn't the only unusual item up for sale, either. A rare femur bone from the extinct dodo bird was also set up for auction. The femur bone, which is a mere, four-inch fragment, was estimated to be worth as much as $22,600.

The dodo bird itself was first discovered and presented to the world in 1958 when Dutch sailors reported seeing them on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Yet less than 100 years after that, the bird was extinct--pushed over the edge by hunting and the introduction of large animals. While scientists have tried to reconstruct what the bird looked like, they're still unsure exactly how the dodo may have appeared during life. No complete specimens have survived.

With that said, the realized price for this particular piece is a mere $12,391, hardly the $22,000 price tag that previous estimates set.