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• 1 2019-03-26T00:45:39-07:00 Early Impressions 42 plain 2019-05-13T06:07:54-07:00 Upon discovery, the dodo bird was marked as a clumsy, over-sized creature that had little purpose and few redeeming qualities. Although Mauritius proved to be a beneficial outpost to refresh for passing sailors and crewmen, the birds were revered quite little, even less than the quaint turtle dove of the same isle. Writings about the two birds clearly show this difference in opinion.
  
  Under the order of Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, Heyndrick Dircksz Jolinck was sent into the isle to explore and wrote in his journal that they had “found large birds, with wings as large as a pigeon, so that they could not fly," and "[t]hese particular birds have a stomach so large that it could provide two men with a tasty meal,” (Hume 2006). The official publication from this voyage explained the variety of birds found on the island and denoted the dodo as walckvögel, or a disgusting-bird, and described it as virtually inedible, save the softer breast meat (Strickland and Melville 1848). In fact, the voyagers would use them as target practice due to their tameness (Moree 1998).
  A few specimens were reportedly brought to other parts of the world including Surat, India, Dejima, Japan, Lisbon, Portugal, and London, England in the 17th C. All of these places were important nodes along global trade routes at the time. Sir Hamon L'Estrange, an English theologian and historian, witnessed a living dodo in London in 1638 (Hume 2006). This single specimen spread the word about the dodo and showed Europeans firsthand how it looked. Based on these limited specimens and reports by those who had seen them, ideas about the dodo were formulated and became widespread in the Western world. These impressions stuck with the dodo well beyond its extinction like when French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon deemed the fowl as cubical, lazy, only able to produce weight in the place of muscle, and voracious in appearance in his publication from 1770 (Shanahan 2004).
  The earliest visual renderings of the species did little to refute the impressions that were conveyed in text. In 1601, soon after discovery, Joris Joostensz Laerle, a European artist, was hired to travel to Mauritius to catalog the local fauna (Hume 2006). His drawings, although rough and lacking in detail, correlated well with what was being presented in writings and firsthand accounts. The renderings above are of specimens in all stages of their observed life, alive, recently captured, and also deceased ones that were observed on the island. Indeed, it was difficult to see a real live specimen of a dodo bird, so it seems that many had to resort to looking at or depicting their carcasses.
  
  The thought that the dodo could not easily be classified in the world is reflected in The Ornithology of Francis Willughby, a 17th C. book providing a comprehensive body of images and texts on what was known of the world's birds. Of course, such a book would convey newly acquired knowledge from European explorations. So it is no surprise that the dodo is pictured in it. Here, it appears with other awkward, ground dwelling birds that were new to European audiences, like the turkey from the Americas and the guinea from Africa, and following the domestic chicken, ostrich, and cassowary on the pages just prior (Willughby and Ray 1678).
  
  These early encounters and representations, deeming the dodo as useless, grotesque, and weak, provided much of the scientific understanding of the species. Little was written on its ecology and how it fit into the island world of Mauritius biologically. The Latinized name, given to the species in the first accounts by Europeans, described it as Gallinaceus Gallus peregrinus. Gallinaceus Gallus means cock or chicken, and peregrinus translates to stranger (University of Utrecht 2012). Soon after, biologist and botanist Carolus Linnaeus declared the dodo's name to be Struthio cucullatus in a 1758 edition of his Systema Naturae. This classifies the species with ostriches under Struthio but differentiates them as possessing hoods, which seems to refer to one of the first accounts of the species in which the bird was said to have "a large head furnished with a kind of hood," (Strickland and Melville 1848). Finally, Linnaeus revised his classification of the species in 1766 to Didus ineptus referring to its location of origin (Mauritius and neighboring islands) and being unfit or out of place in the world. All three of these names reflect the unresolved nature of the knowledge about the dodo at the time; they knew the species was grounded like ostriches and chickens, but they did not know much else. These early "scientific names" forced them into the category as as a "stranger" and deemed them as "unfit" in the known biological system.
• 1 2019-03-26T00:46:10-07:00 Modern Developments 16 plain 2019-05-12T00:55:36-07:00 The dodo bird is believed to have become extinct in the mid to late 17th C. which makes it impossible to conduct modern research based on direct observations of live specimens. However, advances in technology, a better understanding of the interconnected nature of the environment, and the preservation of valuable soft tissue has made it possible to uncover more accurate information on this misunderstood species.
  
  The Oxford Dodo, likely the dodo that Sir Hamon L'Estrange observed as a living specimen in London in the 17th C.provides the last remaining soft dodo tissue available in the world. This specimen somehow made its way from Mauritius to Europe and was eventually acquired by English naturalist and professional gardener John Tradescant the Elder and was held in his museum, the Musaeum Tradescantianum (Tradescant 1656). The specimen was later given to Elias Ashmole who brought it to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. This soft tissue has been important in furthering dodo research using modern technology.
  
  Moreover, research has been done on the island of Mauritius, as the dodo's home and natural habitat. These studies reveal the environment the dodo would have likely experienced when extant. It has been discovered that dodo birds, through analysis of the tissue samples, ate a primarily herbaceous diet, supplemented by fruit, seeds, nuts, and eggs. This can be determined based on the amount of Carbon 13 and Nitrogen 15 in the dodo remains. Reviewing the environment of Mauritius has allowed researchers to determine that the high-feeding period for the dodo would have been in early to late spring time, when plants are flowering and the tortoise eggs were laid (Parish 2013). Understanding the source of its food has allowed us to better comprehend its morphology as well. For instance, its stocky stance would enable it to remain upright when digging up tortoise eggs and its lumpy appearance may have been reflective of its extended gastrointestinal tract, allowing it to digest the thick outer layers of fruits and nuts that it would forage for (Parish 2013). In this way, its form, which was much derided by earlier observers, was well suited for its environment.
  
  The dodo had been believed to be extant in a persistently grotesque state. However, this may not have been the case. The Mauritian climate offered these birds a season of high-feeding, and a counter season with little to offer. It was likely that during this low season the birds would be much leaner and slimmer than depicted in nearly all renderings of it. European sailors to the Indian Ocean generally visited Mauritius based on the seasonal wind cycles, so they may not have been able to observe it continuously, as its physical form changed throughout each year.
  Genetic analysis on the dodo has revealed that it is not closely related to the other modern flightless birds that it was compared with like the ostrich and the turkey. Rather, the dodo's closest relative is the Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), a small ground dwelling bird from the island of Rodrigues east of Mauritius, that is also extinct. The closest living relative has been determined to be the Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands off the coast of India (Oxford Dodo n.d.).
  
  The scientific name for the dodo has been changed once more to Raphus cucullatus. This current name was first coined in 1760 but was not accepted by the world scientific community until after the time of Carolus Linnaeus. Raphus refers to extinct birds from the the Indian Ocean islands, and cucullatus refers to its hardened front of the head resembling a hood-like structure (University of Utrecht).