How do dodo bird extinct

A mythical creature? From right after their extinction and up until the 19th century, dodos were considered by most scientists as a mythical creature - as real as griffin or unicorn - as there seemed to be no conclusive evidence of their existence. For the French that took possession of the island, the dodos seemed no more than the product of excessive imagination.

Only in the early 19th century did European naturalists begin to see dodos across various museum collections. Thus the animal was recognized as a real, if extinct, creature. Carroll frequently visited the Oxford Museum of Natural History. Dodos have become an icon of extinction caused by human action, and act as a warning to us for the future.

Was the dodo fat? Few complete dodo skeletons exist, so it is quite difficult to know exactly what they looked like. Their extinction was so rapid that they unfortunately left little trace of their existence. Interpretations of the appearance of the dodo have varied over the centuries. While the testimonies of travelers all describe the dodo as having plumage ranging from black to dark gray, Dutch painters of the 17th century represented them with a bright plumage, perhaps confusing them with another animal on the island.

Their findings were published in a special issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in March. The dodo, they observed, was a sturdy, robust bird, with thick leg bones and a broad pelvis. Numerous previous studies have suggested that dodos were not nearly as fat as they looked in historical illustrations, and the new digital reconstruction reveals a bird with a more upright posture and slimmer ribcage than commonly depicted. Indeed, it was probably quite agile.

One possibility is that the birds used their wings for balance, especially when moving quickly. The scientists also created similar brain models for eight closely related species, including several types of modern pigeons and the Rodrigues solitaire, another extinct flightless bird that lived on an island near Mauritius.

The dodo and the solitaire, the researchers reported in February , both had enlarged olfactory bulbs, which is unusual for birds. For much of its history, Mauritius would have been a tough and turbulent place for wild animals to live. It was volcanically active and regularly struck by cyclones, which could cause severe food shortages.

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Find out about the extinct and endangered animals in the Museum. Dodo Coelacanth Thylacine Blue whale Golden toad Giant panda Passenger pigeon Schaus' swallowtail Go to the Homepage to find out about hippos and the causes of extinction.