AUSTRALIA: Charred eggshell fragments from numerous sites across Australia suggest that, 50,000 years ago, the continent’s earliest human inhabitants frequently dined on the eggs of a previously unidentified avian species. Recent analysis of samples from the site of Wood Point indicates that the eggs belonged to the flightless Genyornis, or “thunder bird,” which stood more than 6 feet tall and weighed up to 530 pounds. People raided the birds’ nests for their protein-rich eggs, each of which weighed more than 3 pounds. This likely contributed to the bird’s extinction.