Tooth-billed pigeon
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The tooth-billed pigeon, also known as the manumea, is a large pigeon found only in Samoa. It is the only living species of genus Didunculus. A related extinct species, the Tongan tooth-billed pigeon,
Naturalis Biodiversity Center ZMA.AVES.56900 Didunculus strigirostris Jardine, 1845 Columbidae skin specimen
Illustration by John Gould (probably from stuffed specimens)
Illustration in habitat by Gustav Mützel
Live specimen, 1901
Dodo
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The dodo is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightless Rodrigues solita
Tooth-billed pigeon
…although that genus name was already in use for a mollusc. It has no close living relative, but it has been shown to be genetically close to the dodo, and the genus name Didunculus means "little dodo". the English name of dodlet was suggested by Sir Richard Owen. The jaw and tongue structure, and the…
Oxford Dodo display
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")