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Dodo

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

                      iDodo

                             Conservation status

   Extinct  (1681)
            Scientific classification

   Kingdom: Animalia
   Phylum:  Chordata
   Class:   Aves
   Order:   Columbiformes
   Family:  Raphidae
   Genus:   Raphus
            Brisson, 1760
   Species: R. cucullatus

                                Binomial name

   Raphus cucullatus
   Linnaeus, 1758
   Former range (in red)
   Former range (in red)

   The Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus, called Didus ineptus by
   Linnaeus), more commonly just dodo, was a metre-high (three-foot)
   flightless bird of the island of Mauritius. The dodo, which is now
   extinct, lived on fruit and nested on the ground.

Dodo biology

   Dodo reconstruction reflecting new research at Oxford University Museum
   of Natural History
   Enlarge
   Dodo reconstruction reflecting new research at Oxford University Museum
   of Natural History

Taxonomy and evolution

   The dodo is a close relative of modern pigeons and doves. DNA sequence
   analysis suggests that the dodo's ancestors diverged from those of its
   closest known relative, the Rodriguez Solitaire (which is also
   extinct), about 25 million years ago, in the deserts of the middle
   east; these birds reached their impressive size as a result of the
   subsequent isolation of their desert homes in accordance with Foster's
   rule. The same study suggested that the Southeast Asian Nicobar Pigeon
   is the closest living relative of the dodo and the Rodriguez Solitaire.
   However, the proposed phylogeny is questionable as regards the
   relationships of other taxa and must be considered less than reliable
   pending further research; all that can be said with certainty is that
   the ancestors of the didine birds were pigeons from Southeast Asia,
   which agrees with the origin of most of the Sahara's birds. Whether the
   dodo and Rodriguez Solitaire were actually closest to the Nicobar
   Pigeon among the living birds or whether they are closer to other
   groups of the same radiation such as Ducula, Treron or Goura pigeons,
   the proposed relationship to the Nicobar Pigeon being an artifact of
   long branch attraction, is not clear at the moment.

Morphology and flight

   In October 2005, an important site of dodo remains was found by Dutch
   researchers in Mauritius, including birds of various stages of
   maturity. These findings were made public in December 2005 in the
   Naturalis in Leiden. Before this find, few dodo specimens were known.
   Dublin's Natural History Museum had an assembled specimen, while the
   most intact remains from a single bird are a skeletal foot and a head,
   which contains the only known soft tissue remains of the species.

   The decaying remnants of the last complete stuffed dodo, in Oxford's
   Ashmolean Museum, was ordered to be burned by the museum's director in
   1755; the foot and head were salvaged from this specimen, and are
   currently on display. Nevertheless, from artists' renditions we know
   that the Dodo had blue-grey plumage, a 23-centimetre (9-inch) blackish
   hooked bill with a reddish point, very small wings, stout yellow legs,
   and a tuft of curly feathers high on its rear end. Dodos were very
   large birds, weighing about 23 kg (50 pounds). The breast structure was
   insufficient to have ever supported flight. These ground-bound birds
   evolved to take advantage of an island ecology with no predators.

   The traditional image of the dodo is of a fat, clumsy bird, but this
   view has been challenged by Andrew Kitchener, a biologist at the Royal
   Museum of Scotland (reported in National Geographic News, February
   2002), who believes that the old drawings showed overfed captive
   specimens. As Mauritius has marked dry and wet seasons, the dodo
   probably fattened itself on ripe fruits at the end of the wet season to
   live through the dry season where food was scarce; contemporary reports
   speak of the birds' "greedy" appetite. Thus, in captivity with food
   readily available, the birds would become overfed very easily. It had
   lived for thousands of years on Mauritius without any predators, being
   the largest animal then on the island (Mauritius had no native
   inhabitants).

Diet

   The Tambalacoque, also known as the Dodo tree, was hypothesized by
   Stanley Temple to have been eaten from by Dodos, and only by passing
   through the digestive tract of the Dodo could the seeds germinate.
   Temple (1977) force-fed seventeen tambalacoque fruits to Wild Turkeys
   and three germinated. Temple did not try to germinate any seeds from
   control fruits not fed to turkeys so the effect of feeding fruits to
   turkeys was unclear. Temple also overlooked reports on tambalacoque
   seed germination by Hill (1941) and King (1946), who found the seeds
   germinated without abrading.

Dodos and humans

Etymology

   The etymology of the word dodo is unclear. It may be related to
   dodaars, the Dutch name of the little Grebe or Dabchick. The connection
   may have been made because of similar feathers of the hind end or
   because both animals were ungainly. However, the Dutch are also known
   to have called the bird the "walgvogel" ("loathsome bird") in reference
   to its taste. This last name was used for the first time in the journal
   of vice-admiral Wybrand van Warwijck who visited and named the island
   Mauritius in 1598. Dodo or Dodaerse is recorded in captain Wilhem Van
   Westzanen's journal four years later, but it is unclear whether he was
   the first one to use this name. Before the Dutch the Portuguese had
   already visited the island. According to Encarta Dictionary and
   Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, 'dodo' comes from Portuguese doudo
   (currently, more often, doido) meaning 'fool' or 'crazy'. However, the
   present Portuguese name for the bird dodô ("dodo") is of English
   origin. The Portuguese word doudo or doido may itself be a loanword
   from Old English (cp. English 'dolt'). Yet another possibility, as
   author David Quammen has noted in his book Song of the Dodo, "that
   'dodo' was an onomatopoeic approximation of the bird's own call, a
   two-note pigeony sound like 'doo-doo'."

Dodos and culture

   Coat of arms of Mauritius
   Enlarge
   Coat of arms of Mauritius

   The Dodo rampant appears on the Coat of arms of Mauritius. The Dodo is
   the symbol of the Brasseries de Bourbon, a popular brewer on Réunion
   Island. The Dodo is the symbol and mascot of the Durrell Wildlife
   Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoological Park, founded by Gerald
   Durrell. The Dodo's significance as one of the best-known extinct
   animals and its singular appearance has led to its use in literature
   and popular culture to symbolize a concept or object that will or has
   become out of date, expressed in the expression "dead as a dodo". It is
   also used by environmental organizations that promote the protection of
   endangered species. Recently, the Dodo is set as an example of the
   documentary Flock of Dodos highlighting the "evolution
   intelligent-design circus".

Extinction

   The cause of the dodo's extinction is not certain, but recent evidence
   suggests that it was nearly wiped out by some natural disaster before
   humans arrived on the island, its population reduced so severely that
   it fell below sustainable levels.

   As with many animals evolving in isolation from significant predators,
   the Dodo was entirely fearless of people, and this, in combination with
   its flightlessness, made it easy prey. (The island was first visited by
   the Portuguese in 1507, but the Dutch were the first permanent settlers
   on the island.) However, when humans first arrived on Mauritius, they
   also brought with them other animals that had not existed on the island
   before, including sheep, dogs, pigs, cats, rats and monkeys, which
   plundered the Dodo nests, while humans destroyed the forests where they
   made their homes.

   There is some controversy surrounding the extinction date of the Dodo.
   David Roberts states that "the extinction of the Dodo is commonly dated
   to the last confirmed sighting in 1662, reported by shipwrecked mariner
   Volkert Evertsz", but other sources suggest 1681.

   Roberts points out that because the sighting prior to 1662 was in 1638,
   the Dodo was likely already very rare by the 1660s. However,
   statistical analysis of the hunting records of Isaac Joan Lamotius,
   carried out by Julian Hume and coworkers, gives a new estimated
   extinction date of 1693, with a 95% confidence interval of 1688 to
   1715.

   The last known Dodo was killed less than 100 years after the species'
   discovery, and no complete specimens are preserved, although a number
   of museum collections contain Dodo skeletons. The most complete of
   these on display in the Oxford Natural History museum, England. A Dodo
   egg is on display at the East London museum in South Africa. Genetic
   material has been recovered from these and its analysis has confirmed
   that the Dodo was a close relative of pigeon species that are to be
   found in Africa and especially South Asia.

   Few took particular notice of the extinct bird until it became featured
   as a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
   (1865). With the popularity of the book, the Dodo became a household
   word: "as dead as a Dodo".
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo"
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