Dodos were fast and powerful, not slow and clumsy, as a definitively preserved specimen suggests
The Dodoa bird hunted to extinction by humans in the 17th century, was not the slow, unsuspecting bundle of feathers that it is portrayed as in popular culture.
By combing through early records and descriptions of the dodo and a related species called the solitaire, researchers have been able to clear up misconceptions about the iconic creatures. It turns out that the vanished birds were powerful and fast, according to a study published August 14 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
“Was the dodo really the stupid, slow animal we have always been told it was? The few written accounts of living dodos say that it was a fast animal that loved the forest,” said the study author. Mark YoungResearcher and professor at the University of Southampton in the UK, said in a statement.
The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was the first documented extinction directly caused by humans and observed in real time. When Dutch sailors arrived in Mauritius in 1598, the island was teeming with delightfully plump, flightless birds, some 3 feet (1 meter) tall and weighing about 45 pounds (20 kilograms)according to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) in Great Britain. When the Dutch colonized the island, they introduced predatory invasive species, cleared forests, destroyed the dodos’ nests and hunted the birds greedily. Less than 70 years later the species was extinct; the last known sighting occurred in 1662, according to the OUMNH.
For centuries, the dodo has been used as a cautionary tale of evolution, its name synonymous with ineptitude. Since there were no known predators on Mauritius, the story goes, the dodo grew large and lost its ability to fly. Since there were no predators, it was also too trusting of the new human hunters who arrived on the island.
Part of the problem is that scientists are unclear about which species of dodo actually existed, as several mythological birds were described in early literature, the statement said. Records of the birds are confusing, inconsistent and unreliable.
To clarify this, the study’s authors tracked down early specimens, reports of live sightings and early taxonomic descriptions of the species and separated fact from fiction. They found that many species, such as the Nazarene dodo, were fictitious, the solitary dodo (Pezophaps solitaria) – a species closely related to the dodo and thought by some to be mythological – actually existed and lived on the Mauritian island of Rodrigues.
They also identified an iconic “type specimen” for the dodo – that is, the only surviving specimen that serves as a reference for the species. On this basis, they determined that both the dodo and the solitaire are members of the family that also includes pigeons and doves.
Using this type specimen, the team also investigated what dodos actually looked like and dispelled common misconceptions about these iconic birds.
“Evidence from bone samples suggests that the dodo’s tendon that closed its toes was exceptionally strong, comparable to that of living climbing and ratite birds,” said the study’s co-author. Neil Goslingan evolutionary biologist at the University of Southampton in the UK, said in the statement. “These creatures were perfectly adapted to their environment.”
Understanding the dodo’s characteristics and behavior could potentially shed light on its role in its ecosystem and even help protect existing endangered birds, the study authors said in the statement.
Although the dodo is currently extinct, it may not stay that way for much longer. Scientists at Colossal Biosciences are trying Bring back the iconic flightless birdswhich they want to reintroduce in Mauritius to stabilize the ecosystem. The same company is trying to Bring back the woolly mammoth.
