Episode 383: The mysterious extinction of a dinosaur

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Episode 383 is all about Raphus, a secondarily flightless dinosaur which is commonly regarded as 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 doubtless hunted underwater supply

Researchers have discovered Borogovia is a legitimate taxon and supported it being categorised 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 hen like dinosaur, Kaririavis mater, was present in Brazil with feathers preserved on its foot supply

A overview 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 generally known as the dodo, request from Tyrant King through patreon/discord
April Idiot’s episode, it’s technically a dinosaur!

Massive, flightless hen with downy gray feathers and a white plume tail (in all probability, however will get to that)

Hilaire Belloc wrote a poem a few dodo in his Unhealthy Youngster’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 shouldn’t be there! The voice which used to squawk and squeak Is now for ever dumb – But could 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 (could have been rounder in captivity)
A number of drawings, work, and written accounts from the 1600s, although a number of variations in how the dodo appears to be like (solely a few of them primarily based on stay 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 in all probability primarily based on overfed captive dodos or crudely stuffed ones. Additionally doable it exhibits dodos with puffed feathers, as a part of show conduct
Different depictions, equivalent to a portray by Ustad Mansur in 1625, rediscovered within the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 1955, exhibits 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 could 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 laborious to know what’s correct
Generally depicted as white. However the “white dodo” was an faulty 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 colour. The journal was printed 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 brief beak. Reassigned it to Threskiornis. These birds are additionally white and black with slender beaks, which inserts the outline of the Réunion solitaire

Weight could have modified relying on the season (fatter in chilly seasons, thinner in scorching seasons)

A 2017 histology examine of dodo bones and fashionable Mauritian birds instructed dodos bred round August, after storing up fats, and the chicks grew rapidly, 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 top of July, able to breed once more

Dodo has been described as a “robust and grasping” hunter, might be as a result of it was throughout the season once they have been fattening up
Greater than a turkey

Male dodos could have been bigger and had longer beaks than feminine dodos
Potential males lived to age 21 and females to age 17
Feathers have been like pigeon feathers, pennaceous reasonably 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 have been at the back of the cranium

Had a protracted, hooked beak
Could have used its beak for protection
Most likely offered crop milk to its younger

Most likely had nests on the bottom

Could 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
Most likely was a quick runner

Had muscle scars on the bones, so wings could have been used for show and steadiness (not fully ineffective)
Most likely 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 shouldn’t be clear

First written about in 1598 by Dutch sailors, once they arrived on the island Mauritius

Portuguese sailors have been making an attempt to land on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, however have been blown astray 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, throughout the Second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia)

The identify means “tasteless” or “insipid” or “sickly hen”
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 referred to as them penguins (not from the phrase penguin, as a result of penguins in Portuguese have been referred to as “fotilicaios” on the time) however from pinion, to discuss with the small wings

Dodo was additionally referred to 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
May very well be associated to Dodaars, which implies “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, once 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 type of an onomatopoeia for the hen’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 will 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 have been searching for new issues to eat. A 1602 journal by Willem Van West-Zanen talked about 24 to 25 dodos have been hunted for meals, they usually have been so giant they needed to protect some by salting

Meat described by some as unsavory (most well-liked to eat parrots and pigeons) and a few stated it was robust however good
Some solely needed to eat the gizzards, thought of to be one of the best a part of the dodo for consuming
Most descriptions of dodos have 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 sort, conspicuous for his or her measurement, bigger than our swans, with big heads solely half coated 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 comfortable incurved feathers, that are ash colored. These we used to name ‘Walghvogel’, given that the longer and oftener they have been cooked, the much less comfortable and extra insipid consuming they grew to become. Nonetheless their stomach and breast have been of a nice flavour and simply masticated”
Journey journal from the Dutch ship Gelderland, from 1601 to 1603 has the one recognized sketches of residing or not too long ago killed dodos. Most likely drawn however Joris Joosetensz Laerle and one other, unnamed artist. However, unclear what number of have been drawn primarily based on residing dodos and what number of have been stuffed

Most descriptions have been temporary, so not a lot recognized concerning the conduct

A Dutch letter in 1631 wrote about dodos, referring to them as rich mayors: “The mayors are very good and proud. They introduced themselves with an unyielding, stern face and huge open mouth, very jaunty and audacious of gait. They didn’t wish to budge earlier than us; their warfare weapon was the mouth, with which they may chunk fiercely. Their meals was uncooked fruit; they weren’t dressed very properly, however have been wealthy and fats, due to this fact we introduced lots 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 could antagonize the Phoenix of Arabia: her physique is spherical and fats, few weigh lower than fifty pound. It’s reputed extra for surprise than for meals, greasie stomackes could 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 hen. The halfe of her head is bare seeming couered with a effective vaile, her invoice is crooked downwards, in midst is the fun [nostril], from which half to the top 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 practice three small plumes, brief and inproportionable, her legs suiting her physique, her pounces sharpe, her urge for food robust 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 a fantastic fowle considerably larger 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 referred to 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 large as nutmegs, and the keeper instructed us that she eats them (conducing to digestion), and although I keep in mind not how far the keeper was questioned therein, but I’m assured that afterwards she forged all of them once more”
A number of dodos despatched to Europe and Asia, however laborious to know what number of made it alive to their locations (Julian Hume instructed a minimum of 11)

Contains the London specimen Hamon L’Estrange described in 1638, two stay 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 larger 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 hen 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 giant, curving a little bit downwards; their legs are lengthy, scaly, with solely three toes on every foot. It has a cry like a gosling, and is under no circumstances 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 gather, 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 provide ease to the muscle tissue and nerves”
Description talks a few hen with three toes and no tongue, which isn’t a dodo. Some thought it was a brand new species of dodo, Didus nazarenus. Potential 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 completely different instances regarded as a small ostrich, a rail, an albatross, a vulture, and a floor pigeon
Some folks doubted the dodo existed till the fossils have been discovered, despite the fact that 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 inspiration of the monograph The Doto and Its Kindred, printed by Strickland and Melville in 1848, the place Melville described the stays. They’d 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, canine, pigs, and generally monkeys
Final agreed upon sighting of a dodo was in 1662

Went extinct inside lower than a century of being found
Extinction not seen at first, and its extinction regarded as a delusion by some folks
Dodo was not afraid of people, which made it simple 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 canine, pigs, cats, rats, and crab-eating macaques, which went for dodo nests and the identical meals sources

Invasive species and habitat destruction in all probability contributed extra to its extinction than being hunted

Some fossils present in 2005 of dodos killed by a flash flood

In 1997, Carlos Yamashita instructed the broad-billed parrot could have wanted dodos and Cylindraspis tortoises to eat palm fruits and excrete their seeds, which grew to become the parrots’ meals
Dodo could 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 extensively 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 figuring out whether or not they had wings to fly away or legs to run off, and struggling us to strategy them as shut as we happy. Amongst these birds have been these which in India they name Dod-aersen (being a sort of very large goose); these birds are unable to fly, and as a substitute of wings, they merely have just a few small pins, but they will run very swiftly. We drove them collectively into one place in such a fashion that we may catch them with our arms, and once we held one in every of them by its leg, and that upon this it made a fantastic noise, the others all on a sudden got here working as quick as they may to its help, and by which they have 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 instructed dodos have been in all probability uncommon by the 1660s (since final sighting earlier than 1662 was 1638)
In 1868 Alfred Newton instructed the identify dodo was transferred to the pink rail after the dodo went extinct (some descriptions after 1662 use “dodo” when referring to the pink rail
Dutch manuscripts from 1664 to 1674 additionally talked about dodos however could have been speaking about pink rails. Cheke and Parish in 2020 instructed the dodo disappeared from predation by feral pigs in 1658 to 1664, however folks didn’t understand on the time that dodos have been extinct, and the settlers hadn’t seen dodos earlier than however anticipated to see flightless birds, in order that they by chance referred to pink rails as dodos

Crimson rails laid extra eggs at a time than dodos, eggs incubated sooner, and their nests have been in all probability hid, so they might have been much less weak to the pigs
So, unclear precisely when dodos went extinct, however have been in all probability extinct by 1700
Folks didn’t acknowledge that dodos have 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 have 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 (could 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 printed on Dutch diaries and the demise of the dodo

Confirmed that dodo specimens have been collected repeatedly for a minimum of 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 accountable 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 speak about dodos 12 instances 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 pink rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), which had a smaller, extra slender beak
Penderhume and others discovered it extra doubtless 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 properly acquainted with the distinctive morphology of the dodo due to its fame in western Europe—a minimum of three specimens had been transported to the Netherlands and lots of work have been in existence, predominantly by Dutch artists.”

Dutch have been additionally conversant in rails and rail-like birds, and neither Hugo nor Lamotius discuss with them, however earlier Dutch accounts discuss with the pink 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 have been in cost
Dodo bones
Solely 4 incomplete dodo specimens have 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 searching for dodo fossils. Phrase received to George Clark, a pure historian and grasp of a diocesan faculty in Mauritius, who had spent greater than 30 years searching for dodo fossils with out success
Clark received a lead from his faculty pupils, who noticed tortoise bones being taken out of the marsh, and received unique permission to dig on the website of an property. “The boys waded into the deeper, central components of the marsh, feeling for bones utilizing their arms and ft, and the primary discoveries have been made”

Harry Higginson, a civil engineer, was in Mauritius to assist assemble a brand new railway. In September 1865, he seen some hen bones that staff have been eradicating from the soil. He took among the bones to Clarke, who had Owen’s guide on the dodo (not true although, since Owen didn’t publish the guide till a yr 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 have been written after the actual fact and didn’t point out the date he was strolling and located the bones). Nevertheless 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, in all probability washed away or have 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 printed the outline of the fossils
Clark was paid £100 for 100 bones from the British Museum

Richard Owen and Alfred Newton each needed 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 printed on the dodo first
Clark largely discovered bigger bones (since they have been extracting them from the marsh with their arms and ft)
Edward Newton noticed Clark as largely doing it for the cash, although he additionally needed to generate income
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 a few 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 through 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 grow to be the primary Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge in 1865, and congratulated Alfred on his software
In the meantime, he additionally wrote about why he ought to 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 possibly can see them at your leisure; Mr C. & the bishop will, I feel, count on me to explain them & give the Discoverer credit score for his painstaking: you’ll perceive their feeling probably some disappointment have 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 further ‘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 offered 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 lots of sway in his professorship software
His brother Edward wrote: “I have 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 type, 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 vastly worry that Owen could 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, in all probability as a result of he didn’t wish 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 means during which he put up with what can be to an individual in any clever sensitive, a reason behind 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 subject. 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 feel, is evidently afraid of Owen, and although he feels that you’ve got 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 typically depicted). He corrected it in 1869 after he received extra bones, and made the dodo extra upright
Louis Etienne Thirioux, an beginner naturalist and barber, discovered two dodo specimens round 1900 in just a few places, which included the primary articulated specimen, and the one stays of a juvenile specimen (now a misplaced tarsometatarsus)
Thirioux’s specimens have been scanned and studied in 2016
In 2015, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology printed an atlas on the dodo, primarily based on two-near full dodo skeletons (and 5 years of labor)
Seemed 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 sort of full however might be a composite of a minimum of two people
In 2005, a minimum of 17 extra dodos present in varied phases 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, an entire dodo skeleton was present in a lava cave
Dodo kin
In 2014, Tim Heupink and others printed 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 residing relative
The noticed inexperienced pigeon (Caloenas maculata) was described in 1783 and is just like the Nicobar pigeon
However for some time, the noticed inexperienced pigeon was regarded as an irregular type of the Nicobar pigeon
The ancestor of those birds was in all probability capable of 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 reasonably 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 concept of the stepping stone speculation and contributes to our understanding of how the Dodo got here to be such a outstanding 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 have been as soon as mountains
Could have eaten fruit
Could 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 in all probability ate lots of completely different meals on the lengthy sea journeys
Weight-reduction plan in all probability modified relying on the season
Different, now extinct, birds that lived alongside the dodo embody the flightless pink 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 embody 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 kin and constructed digital mind endocasts
Discovered the dodo had a standard sized mind for its physique measurement, and the mind to physique measurement ratio was just like fashionable pigeons
Most likely was related in intelligence to pigeons
Had a big olfactory bulb (good sense of odor)
In 2017, D. Angst and others printed on the bone histology of the dodo
Discovered completely different phases of development and maturity, and the youngest ones have been late stage juveniles
Had fast development charges till it reached sexual maturity
Medullary bone present in two specimens
Histology is just like fashionable birds
Histological proof of molting exhibits after summer season, adults that had simply bred molted
Proposed the dodo bred round August and chicks grew rapidly earlier than summer season within the southern hemisphere, or cyclone season

Enjoyable Truth:
The way in which 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 have been.

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