Saturday, August 22, 2009

There may be hope for the dodo yet...

Okay, I know this news is over two years old, but I guess I wasn't paying attention back then:
"Adventurers exploring a cave on an island in the Indian Ocean have discovered the most complete and well-preserved dodo skeleton ever found, scientists reported yesterday.

Researchers say the find would likely yield the first useful samples of the extinct, flightless bird's DNA.

Very little has been known about the dodo—from what exactly it looked like to what it ate—since it became extinct in the 1600s."

With further advances in the biological sciences, we may get to see a dodo yet. And should scientists be able to conjure up a mating pair, perhaps we could follow the procedures already being used to help insure the survival of the Kakapo parrot - relocate every known specimen to an isolated island, providing them a safe, natural environment and a second chance. I doubt we'd ever have the necessary genetic diversity to insure a healthy, sustainable breeding population of dodos, but who knows? They found one skeleton, maybe there are more out there...

Read the entire article here: Dodo Skeleton Found on Island, May Yield Extinct Bird's DNA

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