Analysis of genetic material recovered from this specimen revealed that the dodo was a member of the pigeon family and its closest living relative is likely the Nicobar pigeon ( Caloenas nicobarica) from the Nicobar Islands and nearby Southeast Asia (Shapiro 2002). The most complete remains of a single dodo are a head and foot, on display at the Oxford Museum of Natural History. A dodo egg is on display at the East London[ Museum in South Africa. Though no whole specimens are preserved, a number of museum collections contain dodo skeletons that are composites, made up of the bones of different birds. As of 2006, no complete skeleton has ever been found. The last complete stuffed bird burned in a fire at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum in 1755. The discovery was significant because of the scarcity of specimens today. These findings were made public in December 2005 by Naturalis, the Netherlands scientific institute in Leiden. In October 2005, Dutch and Mauritian researchers found a cache of 2,000-year-old bones from about 20 dodos in Mauritius. Yet another possibility, as author David Quammen noted in his book The Song of the Dodo, is 'that 'dodo' was an onomatopoeic approximation of the bird's own call, a two-note pigeony sound like 'doo-doo'.'ĭodo reconstruction at Oxford University Museum of Natural History

According to The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, 'dodo' comes from Portuguese doudo (more commonly doido currently) meaning 'fool', or, as an adjective, 'crazy.' The Portuguese word doudo or doido may itself be a loanword from Old English (cp. Whether the dodo was named after this bird is uncertain, but the Dutch are known to have called the bird the 'walgvogel' ('ghastly bird') in reference to the way it tasted.Īdding to the mystery of where the dodo's name came from is the fact that 'dodo' has been part of the English language since at least 1628, and the Dutch are not thought to have reached Mauritius before 1638. Little Grebes are extant, or still living, but they resemble the dodo in that they have similar feathers on the hind end and are also clumsy walkers. The name may be related to the Dutch word ' dodaars', a water bird known in English as the Little Grebe or Dabchick. The origin of the word 'dodo' is controversial. The dodo had been in existence for many thousands, perhaps millions of years, but was wiped out in a matter of decades. While this impact may have been largely an inadvertent byproduct of human migration to Mauritius, moreso than the overhunting seen in the case of the passenger pigeon, it does reflect the importance of considering all actions carefully. However, human activities also played a role, particularly through the introduction of new species to the island, habitat destruction, and overhunting. The dodo, now extinct, lived on fruit and nested on the ground.Įxtinction is a natural part of the history of life, and some researchers speculate that natural causes provided the tipping point for the dodo's extinction.

The Mauritius Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus, called Didus ineptus by Linnaeus), more commonly just Dodo, was a meter-high, flightless bird native only to the island of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean to the east of Africa.

Call of dodo