Bone histology sheds new light on the ecology of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus, Aves, Columbiformes)

2017/08/07 by Delphine Angst, Anusuya Chinsamy, Lorna Steel +1 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Avian ecology and behavior #Ichthyology and Marine Biology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-08536-3

openalex publication_date 2017/08/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

century due to anthropogenic activities. Although it was contemporaneous with humans for almost a century, little was recorded about its ecology. Here we present new aspects of the life history of the dodo based on our analysis of its bone histology. We propose that the dodo bred around August and that the rapid growth of the chicks enabled them to reach a robust size before the austral summer or cyclone season. Histological evidence of molting suggests that after summer had passed, molt began in the adults that had just bred; the timing of molt derived from bone histology is also corroborated by historical descriptions of the dodo by mariners. This research represents the only bone histology analysis of the dodo and provides an unprecedented insight into the life history of this iconic bird.

Citations

• Flight of the Dodo
• Discovery of isolated dodo bones [Raphus cucullatus (L.), Aves, Columbiformes] from Mauritius cave shelters highlights human predation, with a comment on the status of the family Raphidae Wetmore, 1930
• The history of the DodoRaphus cucullatusand the penguin of Mauritius
• Microscopic investigation of feather remains from the head of the Oxford dodo, Raphus cucullatus
• An ecomorphological review of the dodo(Raphus cucullatus)and solitaire(Pezophaps solitaria),flightless Columbiformes of the Mascarene Islands
• Dutch diaries and the demise of the dodo
• The end of the fat dodo? A new mass estimate for Raphus cucullatus
• The dodo was not so slim: leg dimensions and scaling to body mass
• Bone microstructure and developmental plasticity in birds and other dinosaurs
• In defence of the slim dodo: a reply to Louchart and Mourer-Chauviré
• Variation of the Outer Circumferential Layer in the Limb Bones of Birds
• Convex-hull mass estimates of the dodo ( Raphus cucullatus) : application of a CT-based mass estimation technique
• The Morphology of the Thirioux dodos
• Mesozoic avian bone microstructure: physiological implications
• An ecological history of the Mascarene Islands, with particular reference to extinctions and introductions of land vertebrates

Cited by

• The Dutch East India Company and the Transport of Live Exotic Animals in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
• Dodo [wikipedia]

Related

• The Morphology of the Thirioux dodos
• The Dodo: from extinction to the fossil record
• The first endocast of the extinct dodo (Raphus cucullatus) and an anatomical comparison amongst close relatives (Aves, Columbiformes)
• A review of the dodo and its ecosystem: insights from a vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte in Mauritius
• The changing face of the dodo (Aves: Columbidae: Raphus cucullatus ): iconography of the Walghvogel of Mauritius