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Aves - Neognathae - Columbiformes - Columbidae - †Raphus - †Raphus cucullatus (Port Louis specimen)

Species Description
The Port Louis Thirioux dodo specimen is one of two dodo specimens found by the amateur collector Etienne Thirioux more than a century ago. It is one the most complete dodo specimens in existence and is comprised of the remains of a single bird (with an extra set of lacrimals erroneously added from another specimen). The fact that the Port Louis Thirioux dodo represents a single bird is unique: the vast majority of dodo skeletons on display in museums are composite (entirely pieced together from different bones) and incomplete. The Thirioux dodo skeletons, one on exhibit at the Durban Natural Science Museum and on exhibit in the Natural History Museum in Port Louis, Mauritius, are the subject of a new monograph on dodo anatomy, published 150 years after Sir Richard Owen's first, but incomplete description of the anatomy of the dodo skeleton: :

Anatomy of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus L., 1758): An Osteological Study of the Thirioux specimens.

Leon P. A. M. Claessens, Hanneke J. M. Meijer, Julian P. Hume, and Kenneth F. Rijsdijk (Editors).

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 15, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Vol. 35, Supplement to No. 6.

Skeletal Elements Available

Skeleton (as mounted in museum)
Skeleton (repositioned)
left patella (left knee cap)
External Links
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Dodo Memoir

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