The eye sockets occupied much of the hind part of the skull. The cranium (excluding the beak) was wider than it was long, and the frontal bone formed a dome-shape, with the highest point above the hind part of the eye sockets. The openings of the bony nostrils were elongated along the length of the beak, and they contained no bony septum. The upper bill was nearly twice as long as the cranium, which was short compared to those of its closest pigeon relatives. The skull of the dodo differed much from those of other pigeons, especially in being more robust, the bill having a hooked tip, and in having a short cranium compared to the jaws. It has also been suggested that the weight depended on the season, and that individuals were fat during cool seasons, but less so during hot. A 2016 study estimated the weight at 10.6 to 14.3 kg (23 to 32 lb), based on CT scans of composite skeletons. This has also been questioned, and there is still controversy over weight estimates. A 2011 estimate by Angst and colleagues gave an average weight as low as 10.2 kg (22 lb). Kitchener attributed a high contemporary weight estimate and the roundness of dodos depicted in Europe to these birds having been overfed in captivity weights in the wild were estimated to have been in the range of 10.6–17.5 kg (23–39 lb), and fattened birds could have weighed 21.7–27.8 kg (48–61 lb). Livezey proposed that males would have weighed 21 kilograms (46 lb) and females 17 kilograms (37 lb). Weight estimates have varied from study to study. The bird was sexually dimorphic males were larger and had proportionally longer beaks. Subfossil remains and remnants of the birds that were brought to Europe in the 17th century show that dodos were very large birds, up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall. A study of the few remaining feathers on the Oxford specimen head showed that they were pennaceous rather than plumaceous (downy) and most similar to those of other pigeons. The head was grey and naked, the beak green, black and yellow, and the legs were stout and yellowish, with black claws. According to most representations, the dodo had greyish or brownish plumage, with lighter primary feathers and a tuft of curly light feathers high on its rear end. Illustrations and written accounts of encounters with the dodo between its discovery and its extinction (1598–1662) are the primary evidence for its external appearance. 1625 perhaps the most accurate depiction of a live dodoĪs no complete dodo specimens exist, its external appearance, such as plumage and colouration, is hard to determine. The study was published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.Dodo among Indian birds, by Ustad Mansur, c. Unusually large olfactory bulbs suggest that the birds had an enhanced sense of smell, which the research suggests may be because they relied on it to find food on the ground as they were unable to fly. Researchers used a well-preserved dodo skull from London’s Natural History Museum and used high-resolution scanning to work out how the large the brain would have been. “Today, they are almost exclusively known for becoming extinct, and I think that’s why we’ve given them this reputation of being dumb,” said Eugenia Gold, the lead author of the paper, a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School. This combined with the introduction of invasive species to the island meant that the doomed birds died out less than 100 years after they were discovered. With no fear of humans, the dodos were easily herded onto boats to be used as meat for sailors’ supper. Native to the island of Mauritius, the flightless bird was last seen in 1662.
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