![]() The knowledge we do have comes from analyses of its disarticulated remains, and the reports of those who encountered or heard about it. We know that it was well established when Dutch sailors became the first human visitors to Mauritius in 1598, but there’s still so much more about the dodo that we don’t understand. Some sources claim that the name came from 16th century Portuguese sailors who called them ‘doudo’, meaning ‘fool’ or ‘crazy.’ The word ‘dodo’ isn’t exactly kind either.Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus, who devised the modern system of naming organisms, bought into the misconception that dodos were clumsy and stupid.In reference to this, and the dodo’s portly frame, they called the dodos ‘kermisgans.’ The day after they weighed anchor in Mauritius, the Dutch crew of the Gelderland observed the festival of Kermesse, which involved eating fattened fowl.They called the dodo ‘walchvögel’ or ‘repulsive bird.’ Seafarers who ate dodo meat, described it as tough and unpleasant.The Dutch sailors of the day dubbed dodos as ‘dodaersen’ or ‘fat-arses,’ because of the birds’ generously-proportioned backsides.The meat was described as ‘offensive and of no nourishment.’ Dutch sailors carried the dead birds back to their ships, where they chopped them up and turned them into stews. Is it wrong to ask if dodos tasted of chicken? In this resource-rich environment, it also evolved to become bigger, until there came a point where it could no longer leave the ground. The dodo is descended from a much smaller, airborne pigeon which landed in Mauritius sometime in the last 7 million years.Īt the time, there were no terrestrial mammals around to eat it, and so gradually, the bird began to fly less and walk more. Scientists could create a genetic doppelgänger of a Tasmanian Tiger?. ![]()
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