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[[Subfossil]] remains show the dodo measured around {{convert|62.6|-|75|cm|ft}} in height and may have weighed {{convert|10.6|-|17.5|kg|lb|abbr=on}} in the wild. The dodo's appearance in life is evidenced only by drawings, paintings, and written accounts from the 17th century. Since these portraits vary considerably, and since only some of the illustrations are known to have been drawn from live specimens, the dodos' exact appearance in life remains unresolved, and little is known about its behaviour. It has been depicted with brownish-grey [[plumage]], yellow feet, a tuft of tail feathers, a grey, naked head, and a black, yellow, and green beak. It used [[gizzard stone]]s to help [[digestion|digest]] its food, which is thought to have included fruits, and its main [[habitat]] is believed to have been the woods in the drier coastal areas of Mauritius. One account states its [[clutch (eggs)|clutch]] consisted of a single egg. It is presumed that the dodo became flightless because of the ready availability of abundant food sources and a relative absence of predators on Mauritius. Though the dodo has historically been portrayed as being fat and clumsy, it is now thought to have been well-adapted for its ecosystem.
The first recorded mention of the dodo was by Dutch sailors in 1598. In the following years, the bird was hunted by sailors and [[invasive species]], while its habitat was being destroyed. The last widely accepted sighting of a dodo was in 1662. Its extinction was not immediately noticed, and some considered the bird to be a [[myth]]
== Taxonomy ==
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It is unlikely the issue will ever be resolved, unless late reports mentioning the name alongside a physical description are rediscovered.{{sfn|Cheke|Hume|2008|p=79}} The [[IUCN Red List]] accepts Cheke's rationale for choosing the 1662 date, taking all subsequent reports to refer to red rails. In any case, the dodo was probably extinct by 1700, about a century after its discovery in 1598.<ref name=IUCN2012>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=''Raphus cucullatus'' |volume=2016 |page=e.T22690059A93259513 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22690059A93259513.en |access-date=11 November 2021 |ref={{sfnRef|IUCN Red List|2012}}}}</ref><ref name=Cheke2006/> The Dutch left Mauritius in 1710, but by then the dodo and most of the large terrestrial vertebrates there had become extinct.<ref name=Hume2017/>
Even though the rareness of the dodo was reported already in the 17th century, its extinction was not recognised until the 19th century. This was partly because, for religious reasons, extinction was not believed possible until later proved so by [[Georges Cuvier]], and partly because many scientists doubted that the dodo had ever existed. It seemed altogether too strange a creature, and many believed it a myth
== Physical remains ==
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[[Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus]]
[[Category:Dutch Mauritius]]
[[Category:Species endangered by use as food]]
[[Category:Species endangered by habitat loss]]
[[Category:Species endangered by invasive species]]
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