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![Photograph of Dodo: Skeleton cast and model of dodo at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, made in 1998 based on modern research.[1][2]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F5%2F50%2FOxford_Dodo_display.jpg%2F1920px-Oxford_Dodo_display.jpg%3Futm_source%3Den.wikipedia.org%26utm_campaign%3Dimageinfo%26utm_content%3Dthumbnail&w=3840&q=75)
Animal profile
Raphus cucullatus
The dodo was a large flightless pigeon endemic to Mauritius, standing about a metre tall with a heavy hooked bill and reduced wings. It was described by Dutch sailors from 1598 and was gone within a century. No complete original specimen survives.
Illustrations made the dodo look like a fat, absurd creature of no clear kind. DNA from museum material placed it firmly within the pigeons and doves, closest to the Nicobar pigeon, and its nearest relative was another extinct island bird.
Genetic work on museum material places the dodo firmly inside the pigeon and dove family, with the Southeast Asian Nicobar pigeon as its nearest living relative. The bird was not a giant turkey or a peculiar ratite, but a columbid that lost flight on an island.