The Society:

  HOME

  Introduction

  Objects

  Join or renew

  Guest Book

  Hall of Fame

  Products For Sale

  Classifieds Ads

  Contact Us

 

The Avicultural Journal

  Journal Archives

  Exotic Bird Species

  Budgerigar Information

  Canary Information

  Parrot Information

  Finch Information

  General Information

  First Breeding Awards

 

Affiliations:

  Affiliated Clubs

  Parrot Association of Canada

  Avian Preservation Foundatn

 

Showing Birds:

  Canadian Shows

  National Results

  Accredited Judges

 

Leg Bands:

  General Information

  Band Size Chart

  Trace a Band

  Band Prices

  Order Bands

  Current Ring Codes

 

Links:

    Links

    Copyright & Privacy Policies

 
DODO BIRD

RAPHUS CUCULLATUS
'Foolish' bird
Forest-dwelling and flightless
Waded in ponds to catch fish
Killed by sailors for extra food
Ship animals stole its eggs

Scientists find 'mass dodo grave'
The bones are at least 2,000 years old
Scientists have discovered the "beautifully preserved" bones of about 20 dodos at a dig site in Mauritius.
Little is known about the dodo, a famous flightless bird thought to have become extinct in the 17th Century.

No complete skeleton has ever been found in Mauritius, and the last full set of bones was destroyed in a fire at a museum in Oxford, England, in 1755.

Researchers believe the bones are at least 2,000 years old, and hope to learn more about how dodos lived.

A team of Dutch and Mauritian scientists discovered the bones in a swampy area near a sugar plantation on the south-east of the island.

The bones were said to have been recovered from a single layer of earth, with the prospect of further excavations to come.

Sections of beaks and the remains of dodo chicks were thought to be among the find.

The discovery was hailed as a breakthrough in the Netherlands.

"This new find will allow for the first scientific research into and reconstruction of the world in which the dodo lived, before western man landed on Mauritius and wiped out the species," the country's Natural History Museum announced in a statement.

Dutch geologist Kenneth Rijsdijk, who led the dig, said DNA samples from the dodo bones could revolutionise our understanding of how the birds lived.

The dodo was mocked by Portuguese and Dutch colonialists for its size and apparent lack of fear of armed, hungry hunters.

It took its name from the Portuguese word for "fool", and was hunted to extinction within 200 years of Europeans landing on Mauritius.

This site maintained by: The Avicultural Advancement Council of Canada,
E-mail: Webmaster
Copyright 1977 - 2012 © The Avicultural Advancement Council of Canada