Tammy Benson, age 9, of Amarillo, Texas, for her question:

IS THERE SUCH AN ANIMAL AS AN ELEPHANT BIRD?

At one time many years ago, there lived a giant bird in Madagascar called the elephant bird. It was about 10 feet high and weighed about 1,000 pounds. But the elephant bird became extinct.

Eggs from the elephant b rd could hold two gallons. Scientists called them the largest know single cells in the animal kingdom. We know about the elepha t bird from bones and eggs that scientists have found. There's a mythical bird of enormous size that is known from stories in the "Arabian Nights." It’s called the roc. The bird was said to be so large that it could seize an elephant out of the jungle with its powerful talons. Marco Polo heard stories about the roc.

Most authorities today say that legends of the roc were most likely based on knowledge of the extinct elephant bird.