DODO BRAIN SCAN REVEALS BIRD'S SENSORY ABILITIES

An international study led by researchers at the University of Lethbridge in Canada has examined one of only two complete dodo skulls in existence to investigate how the extinct bird experienced its environment. The skull, housed at the Natural History Museum Denmark in Copenhagen, was digitally reconstructed using high-resolution CT scanning to create a detailed three-dimensional model of the space once occupied by the bird's brain. The findings, published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, suggest the dodo possessed sensory abilities that differed from those of living pigeons and doves.

The research indicates the dodo may have had a more flexible daily activity pattern that extended into dawn and dusk periods, an enhanced sense of smell and a greater ability to process tactile information through its large upper beak. Peter Andrew Hosner, associate professor and curator of birds at the Natural History Museum Denmark and co-author of the study, stated that the dodo's behaviour and foraging ecology have been debated for centuries. Access to one of the world's rarest skulls enabled researchers to compare the dodo with its closest living relatives and gain new insights into how the bird foraged and interacted with its environment on Mauritius before disappearing in the late 17th century.

The CT scanning was conducted without damaging the exceptional specimen as part of preparations for the opening of a new museum building with new permanent galleries in 2027. The other complete dodo skull is held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The study provides new understanding of a bird described as one of the world's most recognisable extinct animals, despite surprisingly little being previously known about how it actually lived.