Endemic to Madagascar, elephant birds (Aepyornis maximus) were flightless. They reached 3 metres tall, making them the largest birds to have lived, and went extinct about 1000 years ago.

Researchers in Comparative Seed Biology, Wolfgang Stuppy and Aurélie Albert-Daviaud, explain how some Madagascan plants are living on 'borrowed time' following the extinction of their seed dispersers.