'Biggest bird' dispute put to nest

PARIS - After more than a century of conflicting evidence, Anglo-French animosity and a H.G. Wells novella involving murder most fowl, scientists said on Wednesday they have finally solved the riddle of the world's largest bird.

For 60 million years the colossal, flightless elephant bird - Aepyornis maximus - stalked the savanna and rain forests of Madagascar until it was hunted to extinction around 1,000 years ago.

In the 19th century, a new breed of buccaneering European zoologist obsessed over the creature, pillaging skeletons and fossilized eggs to prove they had discovered the biggest bird on Earth.