paleoillustration: Dodo by Peter Schouten “The Dodo’s external…
Dodo by Peter Schouten
“The Dodo’s external appearance is evidenced only by paintings and written accounts from the 17th century. Because these vary considerably, and because only a few sketches are known to have been drawn from live specimens, its exact appearance in life remains a mystery.” Wikipedia
The dodo wasn’t the first species lost in the current wave of mass extinction, but as David Quammen talks about in his beautiful book Song of the Dodo, it was the first time that an extinction was widely recognized as having happened as a result of human activity.
I love that book. More than any other, it changed the way I view the world.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/52612994459.
Tags: david quammen, song of the dodo, dodo, extinction.
