Editing Dodo (section)

=== 17th-century specimens ===
{{multiple image
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|image1 = Dodo casts c1800.jpg
|alt1 = White casts

|image2 = Dodo head.jpg
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|footer = Cast of the Oxford head before dissection and the lost London foot at [[Booth Museum]], and illustration of same head
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The only extant remains of dodo specimens taken to Europe in the 17th century are a dried head and foot in the [[Oxford University Museum of Natural History]], a foot once housed in the British Museum but now lost, a skull in the [[University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum]], and an upper jaw in the [[National Museum, Prague]]. The last two were rediscovered and identified as dodo remains in the mid-19th century.{{sfn|Fuller|2002|pp=116–129}} Several stuffed dodos were also mentioned in old museum inventories, but none are known to have survived.<ref>{{cite journal| doi = 10.3366/anh.1992.19.2.145| last = Ovenell | first = R. F.| date=June 1992 | title = The Tradescant Dodo| journal = Archives of Natural History| volume = 19| issue = 2| pages = 145–152}}</ref> Apart from these remains, a dried foot which belonged to Dutch professor [[Pieter Pauw]] was mentioned by [[Carolus Clusius]] in 1605. Its provenance is unknown, and it is now lost, but it may have been collected during the Van Neck voyage.<ref name=Hume2006/> Purported stuffed dodos seen in museums around the world today have in fact been made from feathers of other birds; many by British taxidermist [[Rowland Ward]]'s company.{{sfn|Fuller|2002|pp=116–129}}

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|image1 = London dodo foot.jpg
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|image2 = London Dodo leg.jpg
|alt2 = Lithograph of a dried foot

|footer = Coloured engraving of the now lost London foot from 1793 (left), and 1848 lithograph of same in multiple views
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The only known soft tissue remains, the Oxford head (specimen OUM 11605) and foot, belonged to the last known stuffed dodo, which was first mentioned as part of the [[Tradescant collection]] in 1656 and was moved to the [[Ashmolean Museum]] in 1659.<ref name=Hume2006/> It has been suggested that this might be the remains of the bird that Hamon L'Estrange saw in London, the bird sent by Emanuel Altham, or a donation by Thomas Herbert. Since the remains do not show signs of having been mounted, the specimen might instead have been preserved as a [[study skin]].<ref name="Oxford Dodo 1">{{cite journal|last1=Nowak-Kemp|first1=M.|last2=Hume|first2=J. P.|title=The Oxford Dodo. Part 1: the museum history of the Tradescant Dodo: ownership, displays and audience|journal=Historical Biology|volume=29|issue=2|date=2016|pages=234–247|doi=10.1080/08912963.2016.1152471|s2cid=87191090}}</ref> In 2018, it was reported that scans of the Oxford dodo's head showed that its skin and bone contained [[Shot (pellet)|lead shot]], which was used to hunt birds in the 17th century. This indicates that the Oxford dodo was shot either before being transported to Britain, or some time after arriving. The circumstances of its killing are unknown, and the pellets are to be examined to identify where the lead was mined from.<ref name="Shot">{{cite web |title=Dodo's violent death revealed |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/dodos_violent_death/ |website=warwick.ac.uk |publisher=University of Warwick |access-date=4 October 2023 |date=2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Knapton|first1=Sarah|title=Who shot Lewis Carroll's dodo? Forensic scans reveal mystery death|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/19/shot-lewis-carrolls-dodo-forensic-scans-reveal-mystery-death/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/19/shot-lewis-carrolls-dodo-forensic-scans-reveal-mystery-death/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=20 April 2018|work=The Telegraph|date=20 April 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Many sources state that the Ashmolean Museum burned the stuffed dodo around 1755 because of severe decay, saving only the head and leg. Statute&nbsp;8 of the museum states "That as any particular grows old and perishing the keeper may remove it into one of the closets or other repository; and some other to be substituted."<ref>{{cite journal| doi = 10.1093/jhc/13.2.125| last = MacGregor | first = A.| year = 2001| title = The Ashmolean as a museum of natural history, 1683 1860| journal = Journal of the History of Collections| volume = 13| issue = 2| pages = 125–144}}</ref> The deliberate destruction of the specimen is now believed to be a myth; it was removed from exhibition to preserve what remained of it. This remaining soft tissue has since degraded further; the head was dissected by Strickland and Melville, separating the skin from the skull in two-halves. The foot is in a skeletal state, with only scraps of skin and [[tendon]]s. Very few feathers remain on the head. It is probably a female, as the foot is 11% smaller and more gracile than the London foot, yet appears to be fully grown.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hume | first1 = J. P. | author-link1 = Julian Pender Hume | last2 = Datta | first2 = A. | last3 = Martill | first3 = D. M. | year = 2006 | title = Unpublished drawings of the Dodo ''Raphus cucullatus'' and notes on Dodo skin relics | journal = [[Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club|Bull. B.O.C.]] | volume = 126A | pages = 49–54 | issn = 0007-1595 | url = http://julianhume.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Hume-et-al-dodo-skin-relics.pdf | access-date = 14 September 2011 | archive-date = 5 November 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191105212809/http://julianhume.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Hume-et-al-dodo-skin-relics.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref> The specimen was exhibited at the Oxford museum from at least the 1860s and until 1998, where-after it was mainly kept in storage to prevent damage.<ref name="Oxford Dodo 2">{{cite journal|last1=Nowak-Kemp|first1=M.|last2=Hume|first2=J. P.|title=The Oxford Dodo. Part 2: from curiosity to icon and its role in displays, education and research|journal=Historical Biology|volume=29|issue=3|date=2016|pages=296–307|doi=10.1080/08912963.2016.1155211|s2cid=87966871}}</ref> Casts of the head can today be found in many museums worldwide.<ref name="Oxford Dodo 1"/>

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|image1 = Dodo upper beak in Prague.jpg
|alt1 = Fragmentary leg and skull bones of a dodo

|image2 = Prague dodo beak.jpg
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|footer = Upper jaw of a dodo in the [[National Museum of Prague]] (left) and 1855 lithograph of the specimen
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The dried London foot, first mentioned in 1665, and transferred to the British Museum in the 18th century, was displayed next to Savery's ''Edwards's Dodo'' painting until the 1840s, and it too was dissected by Strickland and Melville. It was not posed in a standing posture, which suggests that it was severed from a fresh specimen, not a mounted one. By 1896 it was mentioned as being without its [[integument]]s, and only the bones are believed to remain today, though its present whereabouts are unknown.<ref name=Hume2006/>

The Copenhagen skull (specimen ZMUC 90-806) is known to have been part of the collection of Bernardus Paludanus in [[Enkhuizen]] until 1651, when it was moved to the museum in [[Gottorf Castle]], [[Schleswig]].{{sfn|Fuller|2002|p=123}} After the castle was occupied by Danish forces in 1702, the museum collection was assimilated into the Royal Danish collection. The skull was rediscovered by J. T. Reinhardt in 1840. Based on its history, it may be the oldest known surviving remains of a dodo brought to Europe in the 17th century.<ref name=Hume2006/> It is {{convert|13|mm|abbr=on}} shorter than the Oxford skull, and may have belonged to a female.<ref name=Livezey1993/> It was [[mummified]], but the skin has perished.<ref name=Hume2017/>

The front part of a skull (specimen NMP P6V-004389) in the National Museum of Prague was found in 1850 among the remains of the Böhmisches Museum. Other elements supposedly belonging to this specimen have been listed in the literature, but it appears only the partial skull was ever present (a partial right limb in the museum appears to be from a Rodrigues solitaire).<ref name=Hume2006/><ref>{{cite journal | last = Jiří | first = M. | title = Extinct and nearly extinct birds in the collections of the National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic | journal = Journal of the National Museum (Prague) National History Series | volume = 181 | pages = 105–106 | year =2012 }}</ref>{{sfn|Parish|2013|p=184–188}} It may be what remains of one of the stuffed dodos known to have been at the menagerie of Emperor Rudolph II, possibly the specimen painted by Hoefnagel or Savery there.<ref name=HumeCheke2004>{{cite journal| doi = 10.3366/anh.2004.31.1.57| last1 = Hume| first1 = J. P.| author-link1 = Julian Pender Hume| last2 = Cheke| first2 = A. S.| year = 2004| title = The white dodo of Réunion Island: Unravelling a scientific and historical myth| journal = Archives of Natural History| volume = 31| issue = 1| pages = 57–79| url = http://julianhume.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Hume-and-Cheke-no-illustrations.pdf| access-date = 11 January 2011| archive-date = 5 November 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191105212750/http://julianhume.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Hume-and-Cheke-no-illustrations.pdf| url-status = live}}</ref>