Sideroxylon grandiflorum, also known as the tambalacoque or dodo tree, is a long-lived species of tree in the sapote family Sapotaceae. It is endemic to Mauritius.
Image: Sideroxylon grandiflorum Mauritian endemic tree
Image: Dodo Tree Naturalis Peter Maas 2009
Preserved seeds.
The dodo is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightless Rodrigues solitaire. The two formed the subfamily Raphinae, a clade of extinct flightless birds that were a part of the family which includes pigeons and doves. The closest living relative of the dodo is the Nicobar pigeon. A white dodo was once thought to have existed on the nearby island of Réunion, but it is now believed that this assumption was merely confusion based on the also-extinct Réunion ibis and paintings of white dodos.
Dodo
The Nicobar pigeon is the closest living relative of the dodo
1848 lithograph of the Oxford specimen's foot, which has been used to sample DNA for genetic analyses
1601 engraving showing Dutch activities on the shore of Mauritius and the first published depiction of a dodo on the left (2, called "Walchvoghel")
