Episode 383: The mysterious extinction of a dinosaur

Episode 383 is all about Raphus, a secondarily flightless dinosaur which is usually considered clumsy, however was really swift-footed.

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On this episode, we focus on:

Information:

• An evaluation of dinosaur bone density confirmed that Spinosaurus & Baryonyx possible hunted underwater supply
• Researchers have discovered Borogovia is a sound taxon and supported it being categorized as a troodontid supply
• A brand new enantiornithine, Musivavis amabilis, was described from Liaoning, China supply
• Brevirostruavis macrohyoidus was described with a “hyper-elongated tongue” probably used like a hummingbird or woodpecker supply
• One other fowl like dinosaur, Kaririavis mater, was present in Brazil with feathers preserved on its foot supply
• A assessment of over 100 specimens resulted in two new dinosaurs being named Meemannavis & Brevidentavis supply
• Stan the T. rex was tracked all the way down to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates supply
• Stan shall be part of the upcoming Pure Historical past Museum Abu Dhabi which is scheduled to open on the finish of 2025 supply
• In Beijing, there’s a Birds and Dinosaurs exhibit on the Geological Museum of China supply

The dinosaur of the day: Raphus

• Raphus cucullatus, in any other case often known as the dodo, request from Tyrant King by way of patreon/discord
• April Idiot’s episode, it’s technically a dinosaur!
• Massive, flightless fowl with downy gray feathers and a white plume tail (most likely, however will get to that)
• Hilaire Belloc wrote a poem a few dodo in his Dangerous Little one’s Ebook of Beasts, from 1896:
• The Dodo used to stroll round, And take the solar and air. The solar but warms his native floor – The Dodo isn’t there! The voice which used to squawk and squeak Is now for ever dumb – But might you see his bones and beak All within the Mu-se-um.
• Went extinct across the late 1600s (extra particulars later)
• About 3 ft (1 m) tall
• Weighed about 23 to 39 lb (10.6 to 17.5 kg), within the wild (might have been rounder in captivity)
• A lot of drawings, work, and written accounts from the 1600s, although a number of variations in how the dodo seems (solely a few of them primarily based on reside specimens), so actual look unclear, in addition to how dodos behaved
• Depicted with brownish-grey feathers, stout, yellow legs, a tuft of curly feathers on the tail, a gray head, and a black, yellow, and inexperienced beak
• Had black claws
• Had small wings and a big beak
• Opposite to the way it’s been portrayed, was not fats and clumsy
• Dodos have been depicted as fats and clumsy, however that’s most likely primarily based on overfed captive dodos or crudely stuffed ones. Additionally doable it reveals dodos with puffed feathers, as a part of show habits
• Different depictions, akin to a portray by Ustad Mansur in 1625, rediscovered within the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 1955, reveals a dodo with native Indian birds, and the dodo is slimmer and brownish (probably essentially the most correct depiction)
• The opposite birds within the portray are correct, and this dodo might have lived with different birds within the Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s assortment (English traveler Peter Mundy stated he noticed two dodos there someday between 1628 and 1633)
• Depictions after 1638 appear to be primarily based on earlier photos, and there are many variations within the particulars, which makes it arduous to know what’s correct
• Typically depicted as white. However the “white dodo” was an inaccurate conjecture, primarily based on stories of the Réunion ibis and seventeenth century work of white, dodo-like birds within the 1800s by Pieter Withoos and Pieter Holsteyn
• In 1619, Willem Bontekoe talked about fats, flightless birds as “Dod-eersen” in his journal, with out mentioning their coloration. The journal was revealed in 1646, together with an engraving of a dodo that was white and stocky
• In 1987, scientists described a not too long ago extinct species of ibis from Réunion with a comparatively quick beak. Reassigned it to Threskiornis. These birds are additionally white and black with slender beaks, which inserts the outline of the Réunion solitaire
• Weight might have modified relying on the season (fatter in chilly seasons, thinner in sizzling seasons)
• A 2017 histology examine of dodo bones and trendy Mauritian birds advised dodos bred round August, after storing up fats, and the chicks grew shortly, reaching close to grownup sized earlier than summertime in November to February. then grownup dodos that had bred would molt round March, and be accomplished by the tip of July, able to breed once more
• Dodo has been described as a “sturdy and grasping” hunter, could possibly be as a result of it was through the season after they had been fattening up
• Larger than a turkey
• Male dodos might have been bigger and had longer beaks than feminine dodos
• Attainable males lived to age 21 and females to age 17
• Feathers had been like pigeon feathers, pennaceous fairly than downy (associated to pigeons)
• Had blue-grey plumage
• Had a heavy cranium and beak
• Had a extra strong cranium than a pigeon’s
• Head was wider than it was lengthy
• Head was a lighter gray than the physique
• Eye sockets had been behind the cranium
• Had a protracted, hooked beak
• Might have used its beak for protection
• In all probability offered crop milk to its younger
• In all probability had nests on the bottom
• Might have solely laid one egg at a time
• Had 4 toes, three within the entrance and one within the again
• All toes had thick, black claws
• Had a big sternum, although it was small proportionately, in comparison with smaller pigeons that may fly
• In all probability was a quick runner
• Had muscle scars on the bones, so wings might have been used for show and steadiness (not fully ineffective)
• In all probability grew to become flightless as a result of there weren’t actually any predators round and there was a number of meals
• Etymology for the phrase dodo isn’t clear
• First written about in 1598 by Dutch sailors, after they arrived on the island Mauritius
• Portuguese sailors had been making an attempt to land on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, however had been blown off target from a storm, and ended up on Mauritius
• One of many authentic names for the dodo was “Walghvoghel” in Dutch (written in a journal in 1598 by Dutch Vice Admiral Wybrand can Warwijck, through the Second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia)
• The identify means “tasteless” or “insipid” or “sickly fowl”
• From the English translated model of the outline: “discovering on this place nice amount of foules twice as bigge as swans, which they name Walghstocks or Wallowbirdes being excellent meat. However discovering an abundance of pigeons & parrots they disdained any extra to eat these nice foules calling them Wallowbirds, that’s to say loathsome or fulsome birdes”
• Additionally from the voyage, there’s point out that the Portuguese known as them penguins (not from the phrase penguin, as a result of penguins in Portuguese had been known as “fotilicaios” on the time) however from pinion, to discuss with the small wings
• Dodo was additionally known as “Dronte” (means “swollen” in Dutch), “griff-eendt” and “kermisgans”, to discuss with fowl fattened for the Kermesse pageant in Amsterdam, which occurred the day after they arrived at Mauritius
• Might be associated to Dodaars, which suggests “fat-arse” or “knot-arse” and refers back to the knot of feathers on the tail
• That phrase first utilized in 1602
• Sir Thomas Herbert, an English author, was the primary to make use of the phrase dodo in his 1634 travelogue that stated the Portuguese used that phrase, after they visited Mauritius in 1507
• Emmanuel Altham, additionally used the phrase dodo in a letter in 1628 and stated its origin was Portuguese
• However, it’s not clear if that was the case
• One other suggestion is dodo is kind of an onomatopoeia for the fowl’s name (“doo-doo”)
• The identify cucullatus, “hooded” was first utilized in 1635 by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, as Cygnus cucullatus, referring to Carolus Clusius’s 1605 depiction of a dodo
• Carl Linnaeus wrote it was Struthio cucullatus within the 1700s, and Mathurin Jacques Brisson used the time period Raphus cucullatus in 1760
• In 1766, Linnaeus used the time period Didus ineptus (“inept dodo”) nevertheless it’s been synonymized with Raphus cucullatus
• Dutch phrase “dodoor” means “sluggard”
• Portuguese phrase “doudo” means “silly” or “easy”
• Arab vessels visited Mauritius within the Center Ages and Portuguese ships visited between 1507 and 1513, however neither settled there. No information of dodos from then, although the Portuguese identify for Mauritius is “Cerne (swan) island” and should discuss with the dodos
• The Dutch acquired Mauritius in 1598
• When the primary Dutch sailors made it to the island, they’d been at sea for some time, and had been on the lookout for new issues to eat. A 1602 journal by Willem Van West-Zanen talked about 24 to 25 dodos had been hunted for meals, they usually had been so massive they needed to protect some by salting
• Meat described by some as unsavory (most popular to eat parrots and pigeons) and a few stated it was powerful however good
• Some solely wished to eat the gizzards, thought-about to be one of the best a part of the dodo for consuming
• Most descriptions of dodos had been present in ship’s logs and journals of the Dutch East India Firm (no scientific descriptions)
• One description from van Warwijck’s 1598 journal, wrote: “Blue parrots are very quite a few there, in addition to different birds; amongst that are a form, conspicuous for his or her dimension, bigger than our swans, with big heads solely half lined with pores and skin as if clothed with a hood. These birds lack wings, within the place of which 3 or 4 blackish feathers protrude. The tail consists of some gentle incurved feathers, that are ash colored. These we used to name ‘Walghvogel’, given that the longer and oftener they had been cooked, the much less gentle and extra insipid consuming they grew to become. However their stomach and breast had been of a pleasing flavour and simply masticated”
• Journey journal from the Dutch ship Gelderland, from 1601 to 1603 has the one recognized sketches of dwelling or not too long ago killed dodos. In all probability drawn however Joris Joosetensz Laerle and one other, unnamed artist. However, unclear what number of had been drawn primarily based on dwelling dodos and what number of had been stuffed
• Most descriptions had been transient, so not a lot recognized concerning the habits
• A Dutch letter in 1631 wrote about dodos, referring to them as rich mayors: “The mayors are very good and proud. They offered themselves with an unyielding, stern face and huge open mouth, very jaunty and audacious of gait. They didn’t need to budge earlier than us; their warfare weapon was the mouth, with which they might chew fiercely. Their meals was uncooked fruit; they weren’t dressed very nicely, however had been wealthy and fats, subsequently we introduced a lot of them on board, to the contentment of us all.”
• One other description, by Herbert in 1634: “First right here solely and in Dygarrois [Rodrigues] is generated the Dodo, which for form and rareness might antagonize the Phoenix of Arabia: her physique is spherical and fats, few weigh lower than fifty pound. It’s reputed extra for marvel than for meals, greasie stomackes might seeke after them, however to the fragile they’re offensive and of no nourishment. Her visage darts forth melancholy, as wise of Nature’s injurie in framing so nice a physique to be guided with complementall wings, so small and impotent, that they serve solely to show her fowl. The halfe of her head is bare seeming couered with a high-quality vaile, her invoice is crooked downwards, in midst is the fun [nostril], from which half to the tip tis a light-weight inexperienced, combined with pale yellow tincture; her eyes are small and prefer to Diamonds, spherical and rowling; her clothes downy feathers, her prepare three small plumes, quick and inproportionable, her legs suiting her physique, her pounces sharpe, her urge for food sturdy and grasping. Stones and iron are digested, which description will higher be conceived in her illustration”
• 4 specimens delivered to Europe within the early 1600s, and studied within the 1800s (features a dried head)
• English author Sir Hamon L’Estrange wrote a few dodo in London: “About 1638, as I walked London streets, I noticed the image of a wierd wanting fowle frolicked upon a dress and myselfe with one or two extra in firm went in to see it. It was stored in a chamber, and was an incredible fowle considerably greater than the most important Turkey cock, and so legged and footed, however stouter and thicker and of extra erect form, colored earlier than just like the breast of a younger cock fesan, and on the again of a dunn or dearc color. The keeper known as it a Dodo, and within the ende of a chymney within the chamber there lay a heape of enormous pebble stones, whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as huge as nutmegs, and the keeper informed us that she eats them (conducing to digestion), and although I bear in mind not how far the keeper was questioned therein, but I’m assured that afterwards she solid all of them once more”
• A lot of dodos despatched to Europe and Asia, however arduous to know what number of made it alive to their locations (Julian Hume advised no less than 11)
• Consists of the London specimen Hamon L’Estrange described in 1638, two reside specimens seen in Surat, India by Peter Mundy between 1628 and 1634, one despatched to Nagasaki, Japan, in 1647
• A possible dodo egg was saved within the East London Museum in South Africa, In 2010, the museum proposed utilizing genetic research to see if it was a dodo egg. However it could be an ostrich egg
• François Cauche in 1651 wrote: “I’ve seen in Mauritius birds greater than a Swan, with out feathers on the physique, which is roofed with a black down; the hinder half is spherical, the rump adorned with curled feathers as many in quantity because the fowl is years previous. Rather than wings they’ve feathers like these final, black and curved, with out webs. They haven’t any tongues, the beak is massive, curving just a little downwards; their legs are lengthy, scaly, with solely three toes on every foot. It has a cry like a gosling, and is certainly not so savoury to eat because the Flamingos and Geese of which we now have simply spoken. They solely lay one egg which is white, the scale of a halfpenny roll, by the aspect of which they place a white stone the scale of a hen’s egg. They lay on grass which they acquire, and make their nests within the forests; if one kills the younger one, a gray stone is discovered within the gizzard. We name them Oiseaux de Nazaret. The fats is superb to offer ease to the muscular tissues and nerves”
• Description talks a few fowl with three toes and no tongue, which isn’t a dodo. Some thought it was a brand new species of dodo, Didus nazarenus. Attainable the outline was combined in with an outline of a cassowary. Cauche additionally talked about a “younger ostrich” taken on the ship in 1617, and it’s the one reference to a doable juvenile dodo
• At totally different occasions considered a small ostrich, a rail, an albatross, a vulture, and a floor pigeon
• Some folks doubted the dodo existed till the fossils had been discovered, though there was a head and foot at Oxford, a foot in London, and skulls in Prague and Copenhagen from dodos that had been caught and shipped alive from the island
• Hugh Strickland wrote The Dodo Ebook within the 1840s and 1850s, and included accounts and illustrations of the dodo, and depictions of the specimens that made it to Europe. This was the muse of the monograph The Doto and Its Kindred, revealed by Strickland and Melville in 1848, the place Melville described the stays. That they had permission to dissect the dodo head at Oxford and confirmed it was a large floor pigeon, as a substitute of an ostrich, rail, albatross, or vulture
• Dodo extinction
• Dutch colonized Mauritius in 1644 and introduced cats, canines, pigs, and typically monkeys
• Final agreed upon sighting of a dodo was in 1662
• Went extinct inside lower than a century of being found
• Extinction not observed at first, and its extinction considered a delusion by some folks
• Dodo was not afraid of people, which made it straightforward prey for sailors
• Hunted by sailors and invasive species, and habitat was destroyed
• Within the 1600s, human inhabitants on the island was by no means greater than 50 folks, however they launched canines, pigs, cats, rats, and crab-eating macaques, which went for dodo nests and the identical meals assets
• Invasive species and habitat destruction most likely contributed extra to its extinction than being hunted
• Some fossils present in 2005 of dodos killed by a flash flood
• In 1997, Carlos Yamashita advised the broad-billed parrot might have wanted dodos and Cylindraspis tortoises to eat palm fruits and excrete their seeds, which grew to become the parrots’ meals
• Dodo might have been uncommon earlier than people got here to Mauritius
• However, dodos did survive a whole bunch of years of volcanic exercise and climatic modifications
• Some controversy on when dodos grew to become extinct. Final broadly settle for document of a dodo sighting is 1662, by Volkert Evertsz, who was shipwrecked, and described birds on a small islet off Mauritius, which can have been Amber Island: “These animals on our coming as much as them stared at us and remained quiet the place they stand, not understanding whether or not they had wings to fly away or legs to run off, and struggling us to method them as shut as we happy. Amongst these birds had been these which in India they name Dod-aersen (being a form of very huge goose); these birds are unable to fly, and as a substitute of wings, they merely have just a few small pins, but they’ll run very swiftly. We drove them collectively into one place in such a way that we may catch them with our fingers, and after we held considered one of them by its leg, and that upon this it made an incredible noise, the others all on a sudden got here working as quick as they might to its help, and by which they had been caught and made prisoners additionally”
• One other sighting was in 1688 by Isaac Johannes Lamotius
• A statistical evaluation in 2003 by David Roberts and Andrew Solow estimated dodos went extinct in 1693, and advised dodos had been most likely uncommon by the 1660s (since final sighting earlier than 1662 was 1638)
• In 1868 Alfred Newton advised the identify dodo was transferred to the purple rail after the dodo went extinct (some descriptions after 1662 use “dodo” when referring to the purple rail
• Dutch manuscripts from 1664 to 1674 additionally talked about dodos however might have been speaking about purple rails. Cheke and Parish in 2020 advised the dodo disappeared from predation by feral pigs in 1658 to 1664, however folks didn’t understand on the time that dodos had been extinct, and the settlers hadn’t seen dodos earlier than however anticipated to see flightless birds, in order that they by accident referred to purple rails as dodos
• Purple rails laid extra eggs at a time than dodos, eggs incubated quicker, and their nests had been most likely hid, so they might have been much less weak to the pigs
• So, unclear precisely when dodos went extinct, however had been most likely extinct by 1700
• Individuals didn’t acknowledge that dodos had been extinct, nonetheless, till the 1800s
• Partly for non secular causes, since folks didn’t imagine in extinction till Georges Cuvier, and partly as a result of many scientists didn’t suppose dodos ever existed, and thought they had been a delusion
• Penny Journal in 1833 used dodos as the primary instance of human-induced extinction, and dodos have been seen as a icon of extinction since
• Exhausting to know when precisely it went extinct, since there have been uncommon sightings (might have existed for some time unseen)
• Carefully associated to Raphus solitarius of Réunion island and Pezophaps solitaria of Rodrigues island
• Raphus solitarius and Pezophaps solitaria went extinct within the 1700s
• In 2004 Julian Penderhume and others revealed on Dutch diaries and the demise of the dodo
• Confirmed that dodo specimens had been collected usually for no less than 26 years after 1662 (final agreed upon sighting)
• Calculated new extinction date
• Final accepted sighting of dodos was Volkert Evertszoon, who was shipwrecked in 1662 on an islet with some dodos
• In 1674, Commander Hubert Hugo questioned Simon, a recaptured slave, who had seen two dodos between 1663 and 1674
• Additionally a word that hunters killed dodo for Hugo in 1673
• Lamotius was answerable for Mauritius after Hugo, from 1677 to 1692 and stored diaries. From 1685 to 1688 he didn’t get a lot assist and had hunters every day going for meals. Reliability of the diaries was questioned, and never included in when dodo’s went extinct. His diaries discuss dodos 12 occasions as a part of the hunters’ quarry between 1685 to 1688
• Lamotius final wrote about capturing a dodo on November 25, 1688
• Lamotius used the time period dodaersen, which researchers thought was a reputation transferred from the dodo to the purple rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), which had a smaller, extra slender beak
• Penderhume and others discovered it extra possible Lamotius was referring to the dodo. “He was a reputable observer, having been instructed by the Dutch East India Firm to document, amongst different issues, the pure historical past of Mauritius” and he “would have been nicely acquainted with the distinctive morphology of the dodo due to its fame in western Europe—no less than three specimens had been transported to the Netherlands and lots of work had been in existence, predominantly by Dutch artists.”
• Dutch had been additionally accustomed to rails and rail-like birds, and neither Hugo nor Lamotius discuss with them, however earlier Dutch accounts discuss with the purple rails of Mauritius as discipline chickens. Discovered no proof that Lamotius or Hugo modified the identify to dodaersen
• Estimated the dodo went extinct in 1693, primarily based on information of dodo observations (with a 90% confidence interval)
• Lamotius stopped recording hunts in 1688 as a result of it’s believed he grew to become despondent. There’s a diary for 1689 that hasn’t been discovered, and Lamotius was arrested and left the island in 1692
• The French took over Mauritius in 1710, so it’s doable the dodo grew to become extinct when the French had been in cost
• Dodo bones
• Solely 4 incomplete dodo specimens had been recognized till 1860
• First dodo bones present in 1860 by Philip Ayres, who despatched them to Richard Owen. Owen appears to have combined them up with some Rodrigues solitaire Pexophaps solitaria bones, despatched across the similar time as Louis Bouton, and didn’t observe up
• Then in 1863 Owen despatched phrase to Vincent Ryan, Anglican bishop of Mauritius to unfold the phrase he was on the lookout for dodo fossils. Phrase received to George Clark, a pure historian and grasp of a diocesan college in Mauritius, who had spent greater than 30 years on the lookout for dodo fossils with out success
• Clark received a lead from his college pupils, who noticed tortoise bones being taken out of the marsh, and received unique permission to dig on the web site of an property. “The lads waded into the deeper, central elements of the marsh, feeling for bones utilizing their fingers and toes, and the primary discoveries had been made”
• Harry Higginson, a civil engineer, was in Mauritius to assist assemble a brand new railway. In September 1865, he observed some fowl bones that employees had been eradicating from the soil. He took a few of the bones to Clarke, who had Owen’s guide on the dodo (not true although, since Owen didn’t publish the guide till a 12 months later, in 1866). They in contrast and located the bones to be dodo bones
• Higginson claimed he was first to seek out the dodo bones, however there’s proof Clark received there first and Higginson misremembered the date he visited Clark (his notes had been written after the actual fact and didn’t point out the date he was strolling and located the bones). However it occurred shortly earlier than the completion of the railway, which opened October 19, 1865, and Clark’s first letter to Owen is dated October 6, 1865
• In 1865, George Clark, discovered greater than 300 dodo specimens in a swamp (however not many cranium and wing bones, most likely washed away or had been scavenged)
• Led to extra curiosity concerning the dodo
• Owen publicly introduced the invention, and had a number of lectures and public engagements earlier than he revealed the outline of the fossils
• Clark was paid £100 for 100 bones from the British Museum
• Richard Owen and Alfred Newton each wished to explain the dodo skeletons. Ended up in a rivalry
• Alfred Newton grew to become the primary Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy on the College of Cambridge
• Edward Newton, Alfred Newton’s brother, was posted to Mauritius from 1859 to 1877 as a colonial administrator, and finally grew to become Colonial Secretary
• Edward Newton was within the examine of birds, so he despatched specimens to his brother from Mauritius
• Alfred requested his brother about dodo bones
• In 2009, J.P. Hume and others wrote about how Owen “stole” the dodo
• Earlier than the Suez Canal opened in 1869, letters to and from Mauritius took six to seven weeks to reach (so timeline is a bit complicated)
• First fossils of dodos discovered within the Mare aux Songes marsh in Mauritius in 1865, began a race to publish concerning the skeleton
• On the time of the dodo discoveries, there was a malaria epidemic from 1865 to 1868 that killed 48,000 folks, over 13% of the inhabitants, in Mauritius (so there wasn’t a lot preliminary curiosity on Mauritius concerning the discovery)
• George Clark despatched bones to Richard Owen and Alfred Newton
• Owen intercepted fossils meant for Alfred, and revealed on the dodo first
• Clark largely discovered bigger bones (since they had been extracting them from the marsh with their fingers and toes)
• Edward Newton noticed Clark as largely doing it for the cash, although he additionally wished to earn a living
• Higginson and Clark additionally had a rivalry, and Clark implied to Owen that Higginson paid folks to go at evening and take away bones with out authorization (Higginson donated specimens to 3 museums)
• Extra marshes looked for dodo bones (since Clark had unique rights), however none discovered
• Edward despatched bones to Alfred November 1865, additionally appears to have despatched Owen bones and requested for any surplus bones to go to his brother Alfred
• Clark additionally despatched bones to Alfred by way of Mylius, a captain
• Owen stored all of the bones
• He approached Captain Mylius after the fabric arrived in London. Clark didn’t know
• On December 12, 1865 Alfred learn a letter from Clark on the Zoological Society that introduced the dodo discovery and stated they’d even be accessible at public sale. This appeared to spur Owen to motion
• Owen wrote a testimonial for Newton to develop into the primary Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge in 1865, and congratulated Alfred on his utility
• In the meantime, he additionally wrote about why he must be the one one to get the dodo bones: “As quickly because the Mauritian bones despatched to me by Mr Clark arrive I’ll let you understand, & you’ll be able to see them at your leisure; Mr C. & the bishop will, I believe, count on me to explain them & give the Discoverer credit score for his painstaking: you’ll perceive their feeling probably some disappointment had been I to make these treasures over to a different, as I gladly would do to you, being over-full of labor. In prospect of this little extra ‘straw’ I wrote for the copy of your final labour of Didus.”
• Alfred in the meantime, didn’t know what Owen was doing and adopted George Clark’s requests, and scheduled the dodo bones to be bought at public sale in January 1866
• Then in December 1865 he received a letter from Mylius, with information that Mylius and Clark had agreed Owen would get all of the bones
• Newton couldn’t do a lot, since Owen had a whole lot of sway in his professorship utility
• His brother Edward wrote: “I need to say that I really feel very indignant concerning the conduct of Owen within the case of Clark’s Dodos. He has proven himself to be a really imply minded intolerant kind, and I’m very a lot vexed that I [sic, ? = he] ought to have been the reason for a lot annoyance to you…and I tremendously worry that Owen might injure you for the professorship in a vindictive method.”
• Alfred additionally needed to withdraw his manuscript on the dodo that he’d submitted (so Owen may publish his monograph)
• Clark was additionally stunned however cautious, most likely as a result of he didn’t need to lose out on extra monetary offers (however he didn’t discover any extra dodo bones, particularly after Gaston died and the brand new proprietor not let him search for bones)
• “I really feel very greatful [sic] to him (i.e. you) for the type curiosity he expresses in my affairs, & nonetheless extra for the quiet and gentlemanly manner by which he put up with what could be to an individual in any sensible sensitive, a explanation for a lot vexation. I fancy, that is strictly confidential, that Prof. Owen will need to have expressed some little feeling of jealousy at not having all of the bones submitted to him…I want say no extra on this unpleasant matter. From your self and your brother I’ve met with essentially the most gentlemanly and candid behaviour, for which I shall ever really feel grateful…Clark, I believe, is evidently afraid of Owen, and although he feels that you’ve been shabbily handled, but he thinks that maybe Mylius was proper in handing them [the bones] throughout to Owen.”
• Alfred Newton and Richard Owen bickered for 5 years after
• Owen described the bones in 1866 however primarily based the reconstruction on a portray by Savery that made them too squat and overweight (the best way the dodo continues to be usually depicted). He corrected it in 1869 after he received extra bones, and made the dodo extra upright
• Louis Etienne Thirioux, an newbie naturalist and barber, discovered two dodo specimens round 1900 in just a few areas, which included the primary articulated specimen, and the one stays of a juvenile specimen (now a misplaced tarsometatarsus)
• Thirioux’s specimens had been scanned and studied in 2016
• In 2015, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology revealed an atlas on the dodo, primarily based on two-near full dodo skeletons (and 5 years of labor)
• Regarded on the Thirioux skeletons and described new bones like knee caps, ankle, and wrist bones
• Skeleton on the Mauritius Institute is the one recognized full dodo skeleton, and the one one with bones from one particular person
• Second specimen is on the Durban Pure Science Museum, and is almost full however might be a composite of no less than two people
• In 2005, no less than 17 extra dodos present in varied levels of maturity (no juveniles although), from dodos making an attempt to get to water throughout a extreme drought, round 4,200 years in the past, in a swamp
• In 2006, a whole dodo skeleton was present in a lava cave
• Dodo kinfolk
• In 2014, Tim Heupink and others revealed on the connection between the noticed inexperienced pigeon and the dodo
• The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) and Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) are a part of the subfamily Raphinae (very numerous pigeon species)
• Genetic evaluation discovered the Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica, from southeast Asia) is their closest dwelling relative
• The noticed inexperienced pigeon (Caloenas maculata) was described in 1783 and is much like the Nicobar pigeon
• However for some time, the noticed inexperienced pigeon was considered an irregular type of the Nicobar pigeon
• The ancestor of those birds was most likely in a position to fly however was semi-terrestrial and a fan of islands. Could also be a stepping stone speculation, the place the ancestor of the dodo “travelled from island to island, beginning someplace in Southeast Asia or India and ending in Mauritius and Rodrigues [16, 17], the talked about traits recommend that flight fairly than every other type of transport was a major contributor to this dispersal. Because of this the surprising addition of one other member to the morphologically numerous prolonged Dodo clade helps the thought of the stepping stone speculation and contributes to our understanding of how the Dodo got here to be such a exceptional instance of distant isolation and subsequent morphological evolution.”
• Dodo weight-reduction plan and habitat
• Lived on Mauritius, an island nation east of Madagascar
• Mauritius is an island about 500 mi east of Madagascar
• Lived within the woods in drier coastal areas
• Mauritius island had a volcanic origin and is lower than 10 million years previous
• Probably not any mammalian herbivores on the island, so grownup dodos didn’t actually have any pure predators
• Some fossils additionally present in caves in highland areas, that had been as soon as mountains
• Might have eaten fruit
• Might have additionally eaten nuts, seeds, bulbs, and roots, in addition to crabs and shellfish
• Used gizzard stones to assist digest meals
• May eat a number of issues, because it most likely ate a whole lot of totally different meals on the lengthy sea journeys
• Food regimen most likely modified relying on the season
• Different, now extinct, birds that lived alongside the dodo embrace the flightless purple rail, the broad-billed parrot, the Mascarene gray parakeet, the Mauritius blue pigeon, the Mauritius owl, the Mascarene coot, the Mauritian shelduck, the Mauritian duck, and the Mauritius evening heron
• Different, now extinct, animals that lived alongside the dodo embrace the saddle-backed Mauritius big tortoise, the domed Mauritius big tortoise, the Mauritian big skink, and the Spherical Island burrowing boa
• Dodo mind and histology
• A 2016 examine by Maria Eugenia Leone Gold and others CT the skulls of dodos and eight shut kinfolk and constructed digital mind endocasts
• Discovered the dodo had a standard sized mind for its physique dimension, and the mind to physique dimension ratio was much like trendy pigeons
• In all probability was related in intelligence to pigeons
• Had a big olfactory bulb (good sense of odor)
• In 2017, D. Angst and others revealed on the bone histology of the dodo
• Discovered totally different levels of progress and maturity, and the youngest ones had been late stage juveniles
• Had speedy progress charges till it reached sexual maturity
• Medullary bone present in two specimens
• Histology is much like trendy birds
• Histological proof of molting reveals after summer season, adults that had simply bred molted
• Proposed the dodo bred round August and chicks grew shortly earlier than summer season within the southern hemisphere, or cyclone season

Enjoyable Truth:
The best way dodos have been depicted has modified since their discovery in 1600; sadly for the dodo, most of the more moderen depictions present them as slower and extra dimwitted they really had been.

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