How we cracked the mystery of Australia's prehistoric giant eggs

By Matthew James Collins, Professor of Palaeoproteomics, University of Cambridge
Beatrice Demarchi, Associate professor, Università di Torino
Gifford Miller, Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder

It’s a long-running Australian detective story. From the 1980s onwards, researchers found eggshell fragments, and on rare occasions whole eggs, exposed in eroding sand dunes within the country’s arid zone (which covers most of Australia’s landmass).

A proportion of shells matched eggs laid by emus, but the rest belonged to a mystery species. Researchers initially identified the eggshells as belonging to a giant, extinct bird called Genyornis. But more recently, a group of scientists challenged this view.

With the help of artificial intelligence software, our team…

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