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RARE! DODO SKELETON REPLICA
$ 1650
- Description
- Size Guide
Description
RARE Complete Dodo Skeleton ReplicaMeasuring
27 1/2" tall, the widest point (toe to toe) is 17", front to back (tip of nose to end of tail) 22".
All our replicas are made from a high quality polyurethane resin that approximates the weight and feel of real bone.
Extinct since 1681. Legendary flightless bird of the Mascarenes Islands of the Indian Ocean. This is not a model, but cast directly from a mold taken from the actual dodo skeleton, to our knowledge the only replica of it's kind available.
From the Royal Ontario Museum skeleton specimen. Comes with stand
The Dodo is a lesson in extinction. First sighted around 1600 on Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, the Dodo was extinct less than eighty years later.
Thus while the skeleton on view in the Museum is mostly the original skelton, it does have some reconstructed bones, as there are no complete Dodo specimens. Some of the birds may have been eaten by the Dutch sailors who discovered them. However, the primary causes of their extinction were the destruction of the forest (which cut off the Dodo's food supply), and the animals that the sailors brought with them, including cats, rats, and pigs, which destroyed Dodo nests.
The Dodo's stubby wings and heavy, ungainly body tell us that the bird was flightless. Moreover, its breastbone is too small to support the huge pectoral muscles a bird this size would need to fly. Yet scientists believe that the Dodo evolved from a bird capable of flight into a flightless one. When an ancestor of the Dodo landed on Mauritius, it found a habitat with plenty of food and no predators. It therefore did not need to fly, and, as flying takes a great deal of energy, it was more efficient for the bird to remain on the ground. Eventually, the flightless Dodo evolved. It was a very social and protective bird, when they heard the cries of another Dodo they would come aid their fallen comrade, only ususally to be killed by sailors.
Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and other institutions around the world continue to study and document the impact of human activities on the environment. It is hoped that the lesson of the Dodo can help prevent similar extinctions, and aid us in preserving the diversity of life on earth.