It comes from a collector who compiled the bones from private collections and auctions in the 1970s and ’80s.
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Mauritius-the small island that the flightless bird called home until we killed all of them-has since banned the sale of dodo remains, so it’s unlikely an a mostly-complete skeleton will appear for auction again. It was, however, in the early 2000s that he realized that he had enough bones to complete a dodo skeleton.
Only one Dodo skeleton exists that is made up from the bones of a single animal.
The dodo, which only lived in Mauritius, was first seen by Dutch sailors in 1598 but became extinct within 70 years.
Director Rupert van der Werff said: “The rarity and completeness of this specimen can not be overemphasised”.
Given the skeleton’s desirability and rarity, the auctions are anticipating a price in a high six-figure sum, he says. Within a century after its discovery, the Dodo bird was wiped out. As more and more European ships arrived, so did dogs, cats, rats, and monkeys, all of which preyed on the birds.
After the bird’s demise, hardly any bones were in existence, though a series of paintings, and various written descriptions of the birds remained, along with two poorly stuffed examples that were subsequently lost.
Mr Clark believed the swamp could contain the preserved bones of extinct creatures.
He spent years adding to his collection, which he began in the 1970s, and in 2000 he realised that he had enough bones to build an nearly complete skeleton – missing only part of the skull and one set of claws. It is on display in Port Louis, Mauritius.
Around the same time as the excavation of the bones from the Mare aux Songes, British author Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published.
And unfortunately, this has turned the Dodo bird into a symbol of how humans can negatively impact the natural world.
The skeleton will go on sale at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, in November.
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“Even after the last dodo made its exit, the indignities didn’t stop”, The Christian Science Monitor’s Claire Felter wrote in 2014, when scientists took 3-D scans of the only known complete dodo skeleton. With the price of gold today this would be roughly £5,000,000, according to Summers Place Auctions.
