It has been depicted with brownish-grey plumage, yellow feet, a tuft of tail feathers, a grey, naked head, and a black, yellow, and green beak. Since these portraits vary considerably, and since only some of the illustrations are known to have been drawn from live specimens, the dodos' exact appearance in life remains unresolved, and little is known about its behaviour. The dodo's appearance in life is evidenced only by drawings, paintings, and written accounts from the 17th century. Subfossil remains show the dodo was about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) tall and may have weighed 10.6–17.5 kg (23–39 lb) in the wild. A white dodo was once thought to have existed on the nearby island of Réunion, but it is now believed that this assumption was merely confusion based on the also-extinct Réunion ibis and paintings of white dodos. The closest living relative of the dodo is the Nicobar pigeon. The two formed the subfamily Raphinae, a clade of extinct flightless birds that were a part of the family which includes pigeons and doves. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. ATTACKED BY A BRITISH MYSTERY CAT! - A HITHERTO-UN.The dodo ( Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.LIONS AND SATYRS AND DRAGONS, OH MY! – CAR BOOT SA.WHEN DID THE CAROLINA PARAKEET REALLY DIE OUT?.THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE WEREWOLF PAW.THAT WASN'T!.LEGUATIA GIGANTEA - THE GIANT BIRD THAT NEVER WAS?.THE PINK-TUSKED BLACK ELEPHANT - A FORGOTTEN CHINE. NANDI BEARS AND DEATH BIRDS - MY TOP TEN DEADLIEST.MORE SKY BEASTS?– SOME HITHERTO-UNPUBLISHED SIGHTI.UNMASKING THE MOONRAT - A HAIRY HEDGEHOG THE SIZE.A SNAKE WITH A HEAD AT EACH END? - THE AMPHISBAENA.KICKING UP A STINK ABOUT THE INK MONKEY.THE TWO-HEADED KESTREL THAT CAME HOME WITH THE GRO.MY TWO-HEADED KESTREL – ALL IS REVEALED!.Two more in Oxford's Anatomy School disappeared around 1750." didn't even invent pickling specimens in alcohol until the mid-1660s! As far as I know there are NO 17thC specimens intact anywhere, and very few that pre-date the mid-1700s - most of the huge (former) royal collection in Paris (including almost all of Brisson and Buffon's types) was destroyed around 1800 when they tried to save it by fumigation, but the sulphur fumes damaged the specimens more than the bugs they were trying to kill!.The stuffed dodo in Prague was at some point reduced to just a skull and some bones that still survive. Very few survived as far as the mid-18thC, the decaying dodo was a late survivor, and the Ashmolean dumped ALL their remaining 17thC specimens at the same time as the dodo. So the specimens simply over time succumbed to moths and mites, only the hard bits generally surviving (i.e. 1600s) skins were just cleaned and dried (rarely stuffed) without preservative - or any they used was short-lived. He is the author of such seminal works as Mystery Cats of the World (1989), The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993 greatly expanded in 2012 as The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals), Dragons: A Natural History (1995), In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995), The Unexplained (1996), From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings (1997), Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), The Hidden Powers of Animals (2001), The Beasts That Hide From Man (2003), Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007), Dr Shuker's Casebook (2008), Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times (2010), Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery (2012), Mirabilis: A Carnival of Cryptozoology and Unnatural History (2013), Dragons in Zoology, Cryptozoology, and Culture (2013), The Menagerie of Marvels (2014), A Manif estation of Monsters (2015), Here's Nessie! (2016), and what is widely considered to be his cryptozoological magnum opus, Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors (2016) - plus, very excitingly, his first two long-awaited, much-requested ShukerNature blog books (2019, 2020). Zoologist, media consultant, and science writer, Dr Karl Shuker is also one of the best known cryptozoologists in the world.
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