Dodo skeleton find in Mauritius (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Scientists say they have discovered part of the skeleton of a dodo, the large, flightless bird which became extinct more than 300 years ago.

One of the team in Mauritius said it was the first discovery of fully preserved bones which could give clues as to how the bird became extinct.

Last year, the team found a number of dodo bones at the site, but said the current find was more "significant".

The bird is thought to have been hunted to extinction by European settlers.

No complete skeleton has ever been found in Mauritius, and the last full set of bones was destroyed in a fire at a museum in Oxford, England, in 1755.


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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5113372.stm

Interesting finds. They will be looking for DNA remains. Wouldn't it be an amazing breakthrough if one of the icons of human-caused extinction could be revivified from bits of DNA? The ivorybill woodpecker (status ?),
passenger pigeon, dodo, Steller's sea cow ...

on edit: there has been some earlier analysis of dodo DNA, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1847431.stm

[roguevalley]

1. poor babies. couldn't get away. What kind of person walks up and

kills a defenseless animal just sitting there?

[bluerum]

2. A republican? nt

[Igel]

5. A hungry one.

You travel a long ways by boat, you get to an island that has fresh meat coming up to great you, and you would you (the omnivore) do? Kill, cook, eat. Yum.

But the dogs and pigs left behind (and their descendants) did their share of destruction, destroying the birds eggs.

The bird lived on the ground, laid eggs on nests on the ground.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. Humans are brutal

We (probably) killed off all the major fauna in the Americas (woolly mammoths, horses, camels)

we killed off the large mammals in Australia and New Guinea.

Hell, we even killed off the Passenger Pigeon (which numbered in the millions just 150 years ago.)

I'm pretty sure we killed off the Neanderthals too, but I like to think they fought back.

We can be a murderous and glutinous species :(

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Does that mean that they're going to clone and create a dodo after all

these years?

[freethought]

4. Unfortunately, it's not very likely.

There have been a number of postings about resurrection of extinct species through cloning with the DNA coming from parts or preserved specimens. Just about all of them have been abandoned.
The problem is that DNA degrades over time no matter how the host specimen is preserved or stored. With mounted or stuffed specimens it looks like you have a viable preserved specimen or at least parts of one. The problem is that that mounted specimen has been treated with chemicals and stuff to preserve it which degrades the DNA. Even if you freeze a DNA sample, it will degrade over time regardless of the method of storage.
Some biologists in Australia made an attempt to resurrect the Tasmanian Tiger, a predatory marsupial.
The DNA was to come from a fetal specimen stored in alcohol. Same thing happened, the DNA had degraded too much. I do remember that the project may be back on with the discovery of a new DNA source, I don't recall where they were getting the new genetic material.

It would be amazing if they found a viable DNA source or found a way to reconstruct the genetic material but the old adage "Extinction is Forever" still holds.

[Hand]

7. It's already been done.

He's called Dubya. :rofl: