The Dodo bird lived on the Mauritus Island in the Pacific Ocean. It is an extinct bird. It weighed around 40 to 50 pounds. The Dodo bird was a big bird with short legs and a hooked bill. It also had truncated wings which are part of or cut off. It defended itself by hitting the attakers with its wings. This bird had a nine inch beak. As it adapted to a long calm life it lost all purpose to fly. It also had tough skin which means it was hard to eat. This is also one of the adaptation it took. This bird was very big which meant it could not fly or move fast so it could not escape from the island or run from the sailors and the new animals that the sailors brought. It became a victim to the first people to the Mauritus Island. The first people to the Mauritus Island were sailors. They killed the bird for its meat even though it had tough skin. The bird could not adapt to the new environment with the sailors possibly because it was use to a calm life for so long. It was not scared of the humans.
Relatives
This bird had three relatives that are extinct the Raphus Cucllatus, R. Barboni and Pezophaps Solitaria. The Raphus Cucllatus died out in 1680, the R. Barboni died out in 1750. The Dodo bird bird started dyeing out in the 1500's. The last Dodo died in 1681. In the Mauritus island before the sailors came there were 42 species of bird but only 21 types of birds survived.
References
Deignan, Herbert G., "Dodo," Compton's Encyclopedia and Fact-Index, v. 7,Chicago, 1975
Paynter, R. A. Jr. "Dodo," The World Book Encyclopedia, v.5,Chicago, 1984
Feduccia, Alan, "Dodo" The World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1998.
NOVA Adaptations and Survival menu.