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The dodo , a shuttle that homo hunt to extinction in the 1600s , was n’t the slow , clueless clump of plume that has been depicted in pop culture .
By poring through former records and descriptions of the fogy and a related to coinage called the solitaire , researchers sort out up misconception about the iconic creatures . It turns out , the vanished bird were sinewy and speedy , according to a report published Aug. 14 in theZoological Journal of the Linnean Society .
New research shows dodos played an important role in the ecosystem of Mauritius.
" Was the Dodo really the dumb , slow animal we ’ve been brought up to conceive it was ? The few written account of live Dodos say it was a fast - moving brute that loved the wood , " study authorMark Young , a investigator and professor at the University of Southampton in the U.K.,said in a statement .
The fossil ( genus Raphus cucullatus ) was the first recorded extinction directly triggered by humans and witnessed in real prison term . When Dutch sailors get on Mauritius in 1598 , it was teeming with endearingly chubby , flightless Bronx cheer that stand about3 foot marvelous ( 1 beat ) and press about 45 pounds ( 20 kilo ) , according to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History ( OUMNH ) in the U.K. As the Dutch colonized the island , they introduced predatory incursive species , chop down forests , destroyed the dodos ' nest and hunted the birds rapaciously . Less than 70 years later , the species was out ; the last known sighting was in 1662 , according to the OUMNH .
For centuries , the fogey has been used as an evolutionary prophylactic tale , its name synonymous with ineptness . With no known predatory animal on Mauritius , the story went , the dodo grew heavy and lost its ability to flee . Its lack of predators also made it too trust of the novel human hunters that had arrived on the island .
Researcher Neil Gostling touches the beak of Karen Fawcett’s Dodo sculpture.
Part of the problem is that scientist were n’t really clear about which dodo coinage actually live , with several mythic birds being described in early literature , accord to the statement . Records of the shuttle were confusing , discrepant and undependable .
To bring in that up , the cogitation author tail down early specimens , reports of seeing live creatures and early taxonomic description of the mintage , and sorted fact from fable . They found that while many mintage , such as the Nazarene Raphus cucullatus , were fictional , the patience ( Pezophaps solitaria ) — a species that ’s closely related to the dodo and that some thought was mythological — actually existed and lived on the Mauritanian island of Rodrigues .
They also identify an iconic " case specimen " for the dodo — meaning the single preserve specimen that serves as the reference for the mintage . Using that , they determined that both the dodo and the solitaire were members of the family that includes pigeons and doves .
Using that type specimen , the squad also looked at what dodos were actually like , clear up popular misconception about the iconic wench .
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" Evidence from os specimens suggest that the Dodo ’s tendon which closed its toe was exceptionally powerful , correspondent to [ those of ] climb and bunk birds live today , " field co - authorNeil Gostling , an evolutionary life scientist at the University of Southampton in the U.K. , said in the argument . " These creatures were perfectly adapted to their environment . "
Understanding the fossil ’s characteristic and behavior may clear up the role it played in its ecosystem and could even help protect be queer birds , the subject authors said in the statement .
While the dodo is currently extinct , that may not be true for long . scientist with Colossal Biosciences are trying tobring back the iconic flightless birds , which they trust to re-introduce to Mauritius to brace the ecosystem . The same company is try tobring back the woolly mammoth .
