Almost Complete Dodo Skeleton Heads For Auction Fossils Earth Touch Sept. 20, 2024. the dodo was a flightless bird about the size of a male turkey that had a long, hooked beak and the goofy charm of an emperor penguin. its ancestor first appeared on earth more. A 12,000 year old fossil site near mare la chaux has yielded thousands of bones from extinct animals, including dodos. the discovery will help scientists reconstruct the ecology and history of mauritius and the dodo.
Extinction Around The World Dodo Bird And Western Black Rhinoceros The dodo (raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of mauritius, which is east of madagascar in the indian ocean. the dodo's closest relative was the also extinct and flightless rodrigues solitaire. the two formed the subfamily raphinae, a clade of extinct flightless birds that were a part of the family. The dodo, bigger than a turkey, weighed about 23 kg (about 50 pounds). it had blue gray plumage, a big head, a 23 cm (9 inch) blackish bill with reddish sheath forming the hooked tip, small useless wings, stout yellow legs, and a tuft of curly feathers high on its rear end. the réunion solitaire may have been a white version of the dodo. According to evidence in the different layers and types of tissue of the 22 bones examined, the dodo seems to have adapted its lifestyle to mauritius's stormy summer, from november to march. during this period, heavy rain and strong winds can strip trees of leaves, flowers and fruit, causing severe food shortages for the island's animals. There is only one near complete dodo skeleton that exists, consisting of bones from just one bird, and it has remained unstudied until the twenty first century. it is extremely rare and valuable, and it is housed in the durban natural science museum. we recreated the whole bird in 3d with laser surface scanning technology.
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