41,000 Year Old Ostrich Nest Discovered

A team of archaeologists, including Devara Anil Kumar, assistant professor at MS University, Vadodara, unearthed the world’s oldest known ostrich nest, while investigating the Prakasam site for fossils. The nest has a width of 9-10 feet, and was once home to 9-11 eggs, although it was capable of holding 30-40 eggs at a time, the researchers said.

They pointed out that this discovery gave crucial insights about the extinction of megafauna in India.

What are megafauna?

While scientific literature disagrees about what constitutes megafauna, the term is generally used to describe animals weighing more than 50 kg. The term was first used by the English naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace in his 1876 book, The Geographical Distribution of Animals.