Dodo

The dodo was a flightless bird endemic to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. Best known for its rapid extinction following human colonisation, it has since become an iconic symbol of biological loss and obsolescence. The dodo belonged to a distinctive lineage of island-adapted pigeons that evolved large size and loss of flight, traits shaped by the isolated and predator-poor environment of the Mascarene archipelago. Its closest extinct relative was the Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), and its nearest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica).

Physical Description and Ecology

The dodo’s external appearance is reconstructed from limited 17th-century illustrations, accounts by sailors, and abundant subfossil remains recovered mainly from the Mare aux Songes swamp. These historical depictions vary considerably, leaving some uncertainty about its precise form in life. Nevertheless, modern interpretation suggests the bird had brownish-grey plumage, yellow legs, a tufted tail, a bare greyish head, and a large multicoloured beak. Subfossil evidence indicates a height of roughly one metre, with probable seasonal variation in weight, reflecting the resource fluctuations of Mauritius’s drier coastal forests.
As a ground-dwelling forager, the dodo is thought to have fed mainly on fruits and used gizzard stones to grind fibrous plant material. Nesting accounts describe a clutch of a single egg laid on the ground, a pattern consistent with island birds lacking natural predators. Its flightlessness and robust build are understood as evolutionary adaptations to the stability and abundance of island food sources.

Discovery, Decline, and Extinction

The first recorded description of the dodo came from Dutch sailors in 1598. Over the following decades, the bird suffered rapid population decline due to a combination of hunting, habitat destruction, and predation by invasive animals such as pigs, cats, and rats. The last widely accepted live sighting occurred in 1662, less than a century after its discovery by Europeans. The extinction was not immediately recognised, and confusion with other birds gave rise to speculation and myth surrounding the species.
Subsequent research in the 19th century relied on a few early specimens shipped to Europe, including the famous dried head and foot preserved at the Oxford University Museum. Later excavations in Mauritius produced extensive subfossil assemblages, greatly improving knowledge of the dodo’s anatomy, ecology, and demise. Its extinction became one of the earliest widely discussed examples of human-driven species loss, influencing scientific and public understanding of extinction.
Popular representations—most famously in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—cemented the dodo’s cultural status, often used today to symbolise extinction itself.

Taxonomic History

Early naturalists variously identified the dodo as an ostrich, albatross, rail, or vulture. This confusion stemmed from inconsistent descriptions, fragmentary remains, and limited comparative anatomy. A major turning point occurred in 1842 when the Danish zoologist Johannes Theodor Reinhardt proposed a Columbidae affinity, interpreting the dodo as a giant ground pigeon. Though initially dismissed, this hypothesis gained support from Hugh Edwin Strickland and Alexander Gordon Melville, who, in their 1848 monograph The Dodo and Its Kindred, meticulously compared dodo remains with those of the Rodrigues solitaire and modern pigeons.
Multiple shared characters supported a placement within Columbidae: the structure of the beak and nares, bare facial skin, stout terrestrial legs with pigeon-like scalation, a well-developed crop, reduced clutch size, and detailed cranial and palatal similarities. Differences from living pigeons, such as reduced wings and the enlarged beak, reflected adaptation to island life rather than fundamental taxonomic divergence.
Throughout the 19th century, confusion with other Mascarene birds led to misclassifications. Some early authors considered the Rodrigues solitaire and Réunion solitaire conspecific with the dodo, while mistaken interpretations of sketches of the red rail produced several invalid species names. Over time, osteological and genetic studies dissolved the artificial family Raphidae, placing both the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire within the columbid subfamily Raphinae and tribe Raphini. In 2024, the new subtribe Raphina was established to include only these two species.

Evolution and Phylogenetic Relationships

Molecular research has confirmed the dodo’s close relationship to island-dwelling pigeons. In 2002, mitochondrial DNA from the Oxford specimen and a Rodrigues solitaire bone was successfully sequenced, revealing the Nicobar pigeon as the closest extant relative. Other related taxa include the crowned pigeons (Goura) of New Guinea and the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris) of Samoa. These birds form a clade of large, ground-oriented pigeons that occupy islands and display a suite of convergent ecological adaptations.
Further comparative analyses in 2007 added species such as the pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis) and the thick-billed ground pigeon (Trugon terrestris), refining the structure of this lineage. Additional support came in 2014 with DNA evidence placing the extinct spotted green pigeon (Caloenas maculata) near the Nicobar pigeon, reinforcing their association with the dodo-solitaire group.
Phylogenetic reconstructions estimate that the lineage leading to the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire split around the boundary of the Paleogene and Neogene periods, approximately 23–30 million years ago. Since the Mascarene Islands formed less than 10 million years ago through volcanic activity, the ancestors of these birds must have remained volant for much of their early evolution. Their arrival on Mauritius and Rodrigues is thought to have occurred via island hopping from South Asia, followed by rapid adaptation to predator-poor environments and eventual loss of flight.

Significance

The dodo’s extinction remains one of the most emblematic cases of human impact on biodiversity. Its disappearance alerted scientists to the fragility of island ecosystems and the dramatic consequences of invasive species, hunting, and habitat alteration. As a cultural and scientific symbol, the dodo continues to influence conservation discourse, reminding contemporary society of the importance of safeguarding vulnerable species from similar fates.