Dodo: You know the beloved bird that's extinct!

Perhaps the most famous extinction in the history of mankind is the extinction of the dodo, and there are still many secrets about these birds, their life and death, and thanks to scientific progress and laser technology, experts have been able to survey and study the skeleton of the dodo collected more than 100 years ago, which reveals New information about these birds, as well as the secrets of her life.

The Dodo lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean for a long time without hindrance, so it lost the need and the ability to fly. He lived on the ground eating fruits that fell from the trees. There were no mammals on the island, and the birds lived in dense forests.

In 1505, the Portuguese became the first people to set foot on Mauritius. The island became a port of ships engaged in the spice trade. The dodo was the source of the fresh meat of the sailors and soon killed large numbers of birds.

These birds became extinct before 1693, less than 100 years after the discovery of the Dutch Mauritius in 1598, where the island was the colony of sanctions, pigs and monkeys were brought to the island with civilians, and many ships that arrived in Mauritius also carried mice that Some of them fled to the island. The dodo became a victim of these animals. In the picture, we see George Dante painting a model of the dodo, working with Phil Fraley to reshape the extinct birds commissioned by a museum in Singapore in 2005.

Although the story of the death of the dudu is well documented, no complete samples of birds have been kept, and there are only fragments and drawings.

The dodo is one of the species of birds that have been extinct in Mauritius. Many other birds were lost in the 19th century when the dense forests of Mauritius were turned into tea and sugar plantations. There were 45 species of birds, leaving only 21 species.

Effects of extinction of the dodo on the ecosystem

Recently, one scientist noted that certain types of trees are very rare in Mauritius, as 13 species of trees remain for about 300 years, and no new trees have sprouted since late 1600.

The average age of this tree is about 300 years, meaning it may die soon, and these species will be extinct. It has been shown that the tree stopped cloning 300 years ago. Is this coincidentally occurring on the same date as the dodo before 300 years ago?

It seems not to be a coincidence. The dodo seems to eat the fruit of this tree, and it has to pass through the digestive tract of the dodo to become active seeds and can grow.

Fortunately, some inventors have discovered that the esophagus in Turkish or turkey cockroaches adequately mimic the work of the digestive system in the dodo, so they used it to try to create a new generation of this tree, now called the dodo tree, if these seedlings survive to produce These seeds will be saved.