Etymology

Landscape with Birds, showing a dodo in the lower right, by Roelant Savery, 1628

One of the original names for the dodo was the Dutch "Walghvoghel", first used in the journal of
Dutch Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, who visited Mauritius during the Second Dutch
Expedition to Indonesia in 1598.[22] Walghe means "tasteless", "insipid", or "sickly",
and voghel means "bird". The name was translated by Jakob Friedlib into German
as Walchstök or Walchvögel.[23] The original Dutch report titled Waarachtige Beschryving was lost,
but the English translation survived:[24]
On their left hand was a little island which they named Heemskirk Island, and the bay it selve they
called Warwick Bay... Here they taried 12. daies to refresh themselues, finding in this place great
quantity of foules twice as bigge as swans, which they call Walghstocks or Wallowbirdes being very
good meat. But finding an abundance of pigeons & popinnayes [parrots], they disdained any more to
eat those great foules calling them Wallowbirds, that is to say lothsome or fulsome birdes. [25][26]

Labelled sketch from 1634 by Sir Thomas Herbert, showing a broad-billed parrot ("Cacato"), a red rail ("Hen"),
and a dodo

Another account from that voyage, perhaps the first to mention the dodo, states that the Portuguese
referred to them as penguins. The meaning may not have been derived from penguin (the
Portuguese referred to them as "fotilicaios" at the time), but from pinion, a reference to the small
wings.[22] The crew of the Dutch ship Gelderland referred to the bird as "Dronte" (meaning "swollen")
in 1602, a name that is still used in some languages. [27] This crew also called them "griff-eendt" and
"kermisgans", in reference to fowl fattened for the Kermesse festival in Amsterdam, which was held
the day after they anchored on Mauritius.[28]
The etymology of the word dodo is unclear. Some ascribe it to the Dutch word dodoor for "sluggard",
but it is more probably related to Dodaars, which means either "fat-arse" or "knot-arse", referring to
the knot of feathers on the hind end. [29] The first record of the word Dodaars is in Captain Willem Van
West-Zanen's journal in 1602.[30] The English writer Sir Thomas Herbert was the first to use the
word dodo in print in his 1634 travelogue claiming it was referred to as such by the Portuguese, who
had visited Mauritius in 1507.[28] Another Englishman, Emmanuel Altham, had used the word in a
1628 letter in which he also claimed its origin was Portuguese. The name "dodar" was introduced
into English at the same time as dodo, but was only used until the 18th century. [31] As far as is known,
the Portuguese never mentioned the bird. Nevertheless, some sources still state that the
word dodo derives from the Portuguese word doudo (currently doido), meaning "fool" or "crazy". It
has also been suggested that dodo was an onomatopoeic approximation of the bird's call, a two-note
pigeon-like sound resembling "doo-doo". [32]
The Latin name cucullatus ("hooded") was first used by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg in 1635
as Cygnus cucullatus, in reference to Carolus Clusius's 1605 depiction of a dodo. In his 18th-century
classic work Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus used cucullatus as the specific name, but combined it
with the genus name Struthio (ostrich).[5] Mathurin Jacques Brisson coined the genus
name Raphus (referring to the bustards) in 1760, resulting in the current name Raphus cucullatus. In
1766, Linnaeus coined the new binomial Didus ineptus (meaning "inept dodo"). This has become
a synonym of the earlier name because of nomenclatural priority.[33]

Description

Right half of the Oxford specimen's head (the left half is separate)

As no complete dodo specimens exist, its external appearance, such as plumage and colouration, is
hard to determine.[22] Illustrations and written accounts of encounters with the dodo between its
discovery and its extinction (1598–1662) are the primary evidence for its external appearance.
[34]
 According to most representations, the dodo had greyish or brownish plumage, with
lighter primary feathers and a tuft of curly light feathers high on its rear end. The head was grey and
naked, the beak green, black and yellow, and the legs were stout and yellowish, with black claws.
[35]
 A study of the few remaining feathers on the Oxford specimen head showed that they
were pennaceous rather than plumaceous (downy) and most similar to those of other pigeons. [36]
Dodo among Indian birds, by Ustad Mansur, c. 1625; perhaps the most accurate depiction of a live dodo

Subfossil remains and remnants of the birds that were brought to Europe in the 17th century show
that dodos were very large birds, up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall. The bird was sexually dimorphic; males
were larger and had proportionally longer beaks. Weight estimates have varied from study to study.
In 1993, Bradley C. Livezey proposed that males would have weighed 21 kilograms (46 lb) and
females 17 kilograms (37 lb).[37] Also in 1993, Andrew C. Kitchener attributed a high contemporary
weight estimate and the roundness of dodos depicted in Europe to these birds having been overfed
in captivity; weights in the wild were estimated to have been in the range of 10.6–17.5 kg (23–39 lb),
and fattened birds could have weighed 21.7–27.8 kg (48–61 lb).[38] A 2011 estimate by Angst and
colleagues gave an average weight as low as 10.2 kg (22 lb).[39] This has also been questioned, and
there is still controversy over weight estimates. [40][41] A 2016 study estimated the weight at 10.6 to
14.3 kg (23 to 32 lb), based on CT scans of composite skeletons.[42] It has also been suggested that
the weight depended on the season, and that individuals were fat during cool seasons, but less so
during hot.[43]
The skull of the dodo differed much from those of other pigeons, especially in being more robust, the
bill having a hooked tip, and in having a short cranium compared to the jaws. The upper bill was
nearly twice as long as the cranium, which was short compared to those of its closest pigeon
relatives. The openings of the bony nostrils were elongated along the length of the beak, and they
contained no bony septum. The cranium (excluding the beak) was wider than it was long, and
the frontal bone formed a dome-shape, with the highest point above the hind part of the eye sockets.
The skull sloped downwards at the back. The eye sockets occupied much of the hind part of the
skull. The sclerotic rings inside the eye were formed by eleven ossicles (small bones), similar to the
amount in other pigeons. The mandible was slightly curved, and each half had a
single fenestra (opening), as in other pigeons.[20]

1848 lithograph of the Oxford specimen's skull in multiple views

The dodo had about nineteen presynsacral vertebrae (those of the neck and thorax, including three
fused into a notarium), sixteen synsacral vertebrae (those of the lumbar region and sacrum), six free
tail (caudal) vertebrae, and a pygostyle. The neck had well-developed areas for muscle and ligament
attachment, probably to support the heavy skull and beak. On each side, it had six ribs, four of which
articulated with the sternum through sternal ribs. The sternum was large, but small in relation to the
body compared to those of much smaller pigeons that are able to fly. The sternum was
highly pneumatic, broad, and relatively thick in cross-section. The bones of the pectoral girdle,
shoulder blades, and wing bones were reduced in size compared to those of flighted pigeon, and
were more gracile compared to those of the Rodrigues solitaire, but none of the individual skeletal
components had disappeared. The carpometacarpus of the dodo was more robust than that of the
solitaire, however. The pelvis was wider than that of the solitaire and other relatives, yet was
comparable to the proportions in some smaller, flighted pigeons. Most of the leg bones were more
robust than those of extant pigeons and the solitaire, but the length proportions were little different. [20]
Many of the skeletal features that distinguish the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire, its closest
relative, from pigeons have been attributed to their flightlessness. The pelvic elements were thicker
than those of flighted pigeons to support the higher weight, and the pectoral region and the small
wings were paedomorphic, meaning that they were underdeveloped and retained juvenile features.
The skull, trunk and pelvic limbs were peramorphic, meaning that they changed considerably with
age. The dodo shared several other traits with the Rodrigues solitaire, such as features of the skull,
pelvis, and sternum, as well as their large size. It differed in other aspects, such as being more
robust and shorter than the solitaire, having a larger skull and beak, a rounded skull roof, and
smaller orbits. The dodo's neck and legs were proportionally shorter, and it did not possess an
equivalent to the knob present on the solitaire's wrists.[37]