![]() ![]() To examine the brain of the dodo, Gold tracked down a well-preserved skull from the collections of the Natural History Museum, London, and imaged it there with high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanning. This is partly because dodo specimens are extremely rare, having disappeared during the nascent stage of natural history collections. Today, they are almost exclusively known for becoming extinct, and I think that's why we've given them this reputation of being dumb."Įven though the birds have become an example of oddity, obsolescence, stupidity, and extinction, and have been featured in popular stories ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Ice Age, most aspects of the dodo's biology are still unknown. ![]() "Because of that behavior and invasive species that were introduced to the island, they disappeared in less than 100 years after humans arrived. "When the island was discovered in the late 1500s, the dodos living there had no fear of humans and they were herded onto boats and used as fresh meat for sailors," said Eugenia Gold, the lead author of the paper, a research associate and recent graduate of the American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Graduate School, and an instructor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. The dodo ( Raphus cucullatus) was a large, flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. ![]()
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