amnhnyc:

Gone, but not forgotten! The dodo went extinct in the 1600s, when people and other predators invaded its island home. Mauritius, east of Madagascar, is the only place dodos ever lived.🦤

While the birds died out before photography, their skeletons offer clues to what they were like. For example, this bird couldn’t fly—it had small wings for a bird of its size, its sternum has no keel (the support birds need for flight muscles), and it had thick leg bones made for walking. See this specimen up close in the Hall of Biodiversity!

Photo: D. Finnin/© AMNH

#dodo #musuems #amnh #NaturalHistory #extinction #biodiversity #birds #AnimalFacts (at American Museum of Natural History)
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