Only two complete dodo skulls are known to exist anywhere in the world: one at the Natural History Museum Denmark and one at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The specimen housed in Copenhagen has been preserved in the museum's collections for centuries and has now contributed to an international study led by researchers at the University of Lethbridge in Canada, investigating a question that has puzzled researchers for generations: how did the dodo experience the world around it?
By digitally reconstructing the space once occupied by the bird's brain, researchers have gained new insights into the dodo's sensory abilities. The findings suggest that the dodo's sensory world differed from that of living pigeons and doves in several ways. It may have had a more flexible daily activity pattern, potentially extending into dawn and dusk, an enhanced sense of smell and a greater ability to process tactile information through its large upper beak. Together, the findings provide new clues to how the dodo may have foraged and interacted with its environment on Mauritius before disappearing in the late 17th century.
"The dodo is one of the world's most recognisable extinct animals, yet surprisingly little is known about how it actually lived," says Peter Andrew Hosner, Associate Professor and Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum Denmark and co-author of the study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
"Its behaviour and foraging ecology have been debated for centuries. Having access to one of only two complete dodo skulls has given us a unique opportunity to compare the dodo with its closest living relatives and gain new insights into how it experienced and interacted with its environment," he adds.
Looking inside one of the world's rarest skulls
The unique skull has been a mainstay in the exhibitions at the Natural History Museum Denmark, but as part of the preparations for the opening of a new museum building with new permanent galleries in 2027, researchers had a rare opportunity to examine it using high-resolution CT scanning.
The scan produced a highly detailed three-dimensional digital model without causing any damage to the exceptionally rare specimen. This allowed researchers to reconstruct the inside of the skull, including the cavity once occupied by the brain. Because the brain leaves an imprint on the surrounding bone as it develops, this digital reconstruction offers valuable clues about how the extinct bird sensed and interacted with its environment.
The study includes CT data from three dodo skulls, including the world's only two known complete specimens – one held at the Natural History Museum Denmark and the other at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Having digital data from both complete skulls allowed the researchers to compare the specimens directly and provided a stronger basis for interpreting the dodo's anatomy.
"Studying extinct animals is a bit like detective work. Although the dodo's brain disappeared centuries ago, it left an imprint on the inside of the skull. By digitally reconstructing those spaces and comparing them with the brains of living birds, we can begin to piece together how the dodo sensed, behaved and interacted with the world around it," says Christy Anna Hipsley, Associate Professor at the Natural History Museum Denmark and co-author of the study.
The team compared the digital reconstructions of the dodo's brain cavity with those of living pigeons and doves – the dodo's closest living relatives. The comparison revealed a distinctive combination of sensory features. The anatomy suggests that the dodo may not have been exclusively active during daylight hours, but could also have been active around dawn and dusk. It may also have relied more on smell than its living relatives and used its large upper beak to gather tactile information from its surroundings. Although anatomy alone cannot tell us exactly how the dodo behaved, these findings offer new clues to how it may have found food and experienced its island environment.
"The dodo's skull is unlike that of any living bird, which makes it both fascinating and difficult to interpret. By comparing digital reconstructions of the world's only two complete dodo skulls, we now have a much stronger foundation for identifying which features are truly characteristic of the species and what they can tell us about how the dodo lived," Hipsley adds.
A more complex picture of the dodo
The dodo has often been portrayed as an awkward, unintelligent bird whose extinction seemed inevitable. But the new study provides no evidence that the dodo had diminished cognitive abilities compared with living pigeons and doves. Instead, the findings point to a species with a distinctive combination of sensory adaptations shaped by millions of years of evolution on an isolated island.
The researchers caution that anatomy alone cannot provide a definitive picture of the dodo's behaviour. But by combining CT data from several dodo specimens, including the world's only two complete skulls, the study narrows the gap between centuries of speculation and what can actually be inferred from the dodo's anatomy.
Rather than solving every mystery surrounding the dodo, Peter Hosner explains that the study provides an important new framework for understanding its behaviour and ecology.
"The dodo has become a symbol of extinction, but in many ways it remains surprisingly mysterious. Every new piece of evidence helps us move beyond myths and build a more accurate picture of how this extraordinary bird lived before it disappeared," he says.
