From The BBC
20 April 2018
The Oxford Dodo - the world's most famous example of the extinct bird - was shot in the head, research has found. Historians believed the flightless creature had been kept alive in a 17th Century London townhouse. But recent forensic analysis of its skull found lead shot pellets, which were typically used to hunt wildfowl. Scientists hope to test the fragments to establish where the bird met its end. Oxford University has held the mummified skull and foot at its Natural History Museum for more than 300 years.
The specimen represents the most complete remains of a single dodo, and contains the only soft tissue samples known to exist. It has proved invaluable in learning more about the species, which became extinct 70 years after it was discovered on the island of Mauritius in 1598. But the Oxford Dodo's own fate had remained a mystery.
However, a team at the University of Warwick used forensic CT scanning to create a three-dimensional digital replica of its skull. The technology, which has also been used in criminal trials, showed evidence that the bird had been shot in the back of the head and neck. Prof Mark Williams, of the university's Warwick Manufacturing Group, said: "When we were first asked to scan the Dodo, we were hoping to study its anatomy and shed some new light on how it existed. In our wildest dreams, we never expected to find what we did."
The Oxford Dodo originally came to the city as part of a collection of specimens and artefacts compiled by John Tradescant in the 17th Century. Its remains ended up in the university museum, where author Lewis Carroll is said to have found inspiration for the dodo character in Alice in Wonderland. Museum director Prof Paul Smith said it was "a really great surprise" to learn lead pellets had been found embedded in the skin and the bone of the dodo, which he described as an "icon of extinction".
[OK, putting the weird ‘head-shot’ to one side for a moment….. this bit struck me: contains the only soft tissue samples known to exist. Presumably that means DNA? Maybe recoverable DNA in sufficient quantities to do a full genome? Would that mean there might be enough left to ‘magic up’ an egg if they can find a suitable host to produce one? Could they, at some point, bring the Dodo back from extinction? I mean it’d be a LOT easier that dinosaurs or (probably) mammoths they’ve been talking about for years. Just think of the possibilities….. Dodo burgers from KFC….. Dodo Tikka Masala…… Dodo Jambalaya….. After all the reason they (supposedly) went extinct in the first place was because they tasted so damned good…. ]
5 comments:
I've read that the dodos weren't good eating, and that they were killed partially for amusement -- people couldn't believe they had no fear of man, and no apparent defensive behavior. I've read this ages ago, though, so can't vouch for the source..
i was imagining earlier today that, if man survives, maybe using genome therapy, they'll be able to revive all the species that went extinct over the last few centuries... pipe dreams, i know, but they're the best kind, sometimes...
@ Stephen: I'm not 100% sure why the Dodo went extinct so quickly. Humans most definitely were involved. I need to read up about them some more. I can imagine that they'd never seen people before so had no reason to be much afraid of them. Duh!
@ Mudpuddle: I think it's certainly possible to bring recently extinct species back - especially if you can have a surrogate mother to carry them to term. Whilst I don't think it's *impossible* to bring dinosaurs back (for example) I think it's going to take something like the Manhattan Project to do so.... and I really don't think that kind of will is there presently.
If we wanted to bring back species, we'd probably want to focus on creatures which have only recently gone extinct and left holes in their respective ecosystems that evolution (ecologically speaking) hasn't smooth over yet. That takes a while...in that book "Ghosts of Evolution", the author writes that we still have holes in the NA ecosystem from when the megafauna died off/and were killed off ten thousand years ago. Some of the long-lived tree species have been getting by, but they're nowhere near as profligate as they were because the animals that helped them are gone.
Stephen: i assume you mean at the end of the last ice age?
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