Dead As A Dodo? Museum Scientists Investigate Rare BonesJanuary 06 2006
|
|
|
Rare remains of an extinct bird called the dodo have been found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, and scientists from the Natural History Museum are travelling there to help research the new discovery.
'Extinct' means that there are no individuals from a particular species left alive anywhere in the world.
|
|
|
|
The fossils are thought to be at least 2,000 years old. They include the remains of a very rare dodo beak and dodo chicks as well as the remains of giant tortoises and other extinct birds and plants.
Photo: © Peter Floore
|
|
|
|
The dodo was a large bird which couldn't fly. It lived in Mauritius until the 1680s, when it became extinct. That's where the phrase 'dead as a dodo' comes from.
|
|
|
|
Many things can cause extinction. Sometimes it happens when new predators (animals which eat another type of animal) arrive in an animal's habitat. At other times it's caused by their habitat being changed or destroyed, making it very difficult for them to survive.
|
|
|
|
We don't really know what the dodo looked like, but we can get clues from looking at pictures of dodos drawn by people who went to Mauritius hundreds of years ago and saw dodos in real life, before they became extinct.
Bones, like the ones which have been found, also help us to learn more about the dodo.
Photo: © Natural History Museum
|
|
|
|
|
Some museums even have real dodos which were stuffed, hundreds of years ago, after they died - like the one in the picture above.
"The discovery will give us a new understanding of how dodos lived," says Julian Hume, a zoologist at the Natural History Museum.
|
|
|
|
"For the first time we will be able to answer questions like how many dodos lived on the island and what did they eat," he adds.
"Young dodo remains may also reveal how they bred and what kind of parents they might have been."
|
Kristen Bailey
|
