Today, the Dodo is the most famous species known to have been driven to extinction through human activity. However, it disappeared over a century before Cuvier demonstrated the reality of extinction, and was only one of a huge number of species that died out following early European expansion around the globe. Unlike many other now-extinct Mascarene species, the Dodo's decline and disappearance was not documented by contemporary observers. Repeated settlement changes on Mauritius during the seventeenth century led to protracted ‘cultural amnesia’ over its very existence, and it was widely regarded as mythical by European scientists into the nineteenth century. A series of scientific and socio-cultural hurdles, which all had to be overcome before a given species could be widely appreciated by the general public as an icon of human-caused extinction, are identified and assessed in order to understand how the Dodo returned from scientific death and achieved its tremendous posthumous celebrity. This review in...

https://dodobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TurveyCheke-2008-Dead-as-a-dodo.pdf

Dead as a dodo: the fortuitous rise to fame of an extinction icon

The discovery of the first fossil Dodo remains in the Mare aux Songes marsh, Mauritius, in 1865 resulted in a race to publish on the Dodo's post-cranial anatomy. George Clark, probable discoverer of the fossil site, sent consignments of bones initially to Richard Owen (British Museum), and subsequently to Alfred Newton, Cambridge, via Alfred's brother Edward, who was stationed on Mauritius. After receiving the first consignment, Owen intercepted material intended for Alfred, and abused his position to forestall any complaints from Alfred. Owen published on the Dodo first, while Clark was financially rewarded, but Clark's ensuing arguments over the site discovery with railway engineer, Harry Higginson, and attempt to cover up the abundance of Dodo bones, thus keeping prices high, concluded in a bitter rivalry that was never resolved between Owen and the Newton brothers.

/pdf/how-owen-stole-the-dodo-academic-rivalry-and-disputed-rights-3z00lj5zj2.pdf

How Owen ‘stole’ the Dodo: academic rivalry and disputed rights to a newly-discovered subfossil deposit in nineteenth century Mauritius

The dodo Raphus cucullatus Linnaeus, 1758, an extinct and flightless, giant pigeon endemic to Mauritius, has fascinated people since its discovery, yet has remained surprisingly poorly known. Until the mid-19th century, almost all that was known about the dodo was based on illustrations and written accounts by 17th century mariners, often of questionable accuracy. Furthermore, only a few fragmentary remains of dodos collected prior to the bird's extinction exist. Our understanding of the dodo's anatomy was substantially enhanced by the discovery in 1865 of subfossil bones in a marsh called the Mare aux Songes, situated in southeastern Mauritius. However, no contextual information was recorded during early excavation efforts, and the majority of excavated material comprised larger dodo bones, almost all of which were unassociated. Here we present a modern interdisciplinary analysis of the Mare aux Songes, a 4200-year-old multitaxic vertebrate concentration Lagerstatte. Our analysis of the deposits ...

/pdf/a-review-of-the-dodo-and-its-ecosystem-insights-from-a-59e8jkktzn.pdf

A review of the dodo and its ecosystem: insights from a vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte in Mauritius

Evidence for tactile foraging in pterosaurs: a sensitive tip to the beak of Lonchodraco giganteus (Pterosauria, Lonchodectidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of southern England

The Tradescant or Oxford Dodo has played an important role in exhibition and education throughout its 360-year history, and has been the subject of scientific research reflecting changing interests and techniques over this time. Due to confusion over its relationships, its placement in the classification systems continually changed, until the dissection in 1847 of the head and foot confirmed its columbid (pigeons and doves) affinities. Here, we describe the dissection of the head and foot and the Tradescant Dodo’s display history, from the late nineteenth century until the present day, and also its use in education. We discuss the importance of the Tradescant Dodo to Lewis Carroll, whose ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ made the dodo aware to a worldwide audience. We further provide an overview of recent work including electron microscopic study of feathers, mDNA analysis, cytological investigation of the skin and measuring of the brain capacity, all of which have added to our knowledge of the e...

The Oxford Dodo. Part 2: from curiosity to icon and its role in displays, education and research

The Dodo Raphus cucullatus was an endemic giant flightless pigeon from Mauritius that died out within 100 years of its discovery in 1598 (Moree 1998, Hume et al. 2004) It has become a metaphor for extinction, exemplifying man’s destructive capabilities on endemic oceanic island species (Fuller 2002). Our scant knowledge of the Dodo’s morphology and autecology is derived largely from historical accounts, including contemporary paintings and ships’ records, although there has been debate as to their scientific accuracy (Kitchener 1993). Knowledge of the skeletal anatomy of the Dodo is more detailed, being derived mainly from fossil remains discovered in the Mare aux Songes in the 1860s (Owen 1866). Very few Dodo remains reached European shores, and thus very few scientists have ever had ‘hands-on’ experience of this enigmatic bird. Such was the paucity of tangible evidence for the existence of the Dodo that in the early 19th century many considered the species to have been mythical (Strickland & Melville 1848). Here we announce the discovery of 19th-century illustrations of a Dodo foot, executed by John Edward Gray, while searching the archives in the general library of the Natural History Museum, London. Although a number of exotic species were brought back to Europe in historic times, the inability to keep animals alive, or to preserve dead material on long sea voyages in the 1600s, resulted in comparatively few zoological specimens reaching European shores. Despite suggestions to the contrary (e.g. Hachisuka 1953), as few as four or five Dodo specimens—maybe even fewer—reached Europe, and only one perhaps two birds arrived alive (Hume in press). Amongst the imported birds was the so-called ‘Oxford Dodo’, a specimen which today comprises the only extant skin remains. It has been suggested that the Oxford example is the same Dodo as that seen alive in London in 1638 (Strickland & Melville 1848), but no substantive evidence to support this claim exists. Further examples of soft tissue dodo specimens once existed in Copenhagen (head) and Prague (beak and foot), but today only the bones are preserved and their histories are uncertain. Furthermore, at least one other specimen of a dodo, if indeed it was actually so, was reported to have been deposited at the Anatomy School, Oxford (e.g. Newton & Gadow 1896), but again, its provenance and subsequent history are unknown.

/pdf/unpublished-drawings-of-the-dodo-raphus-cucullatus-and-notes-1phpkibye7.pdf

Unpublished drawings of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and notes on Dodo skin relics

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Unpublished drawings of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and notes on Dodo skin relics