A rare dodo skeleton at auction, could sell for $ 750 billion

An incredibly rare skeleton of the extinct dodo bird should be auctioned tomorrow and it could yield a lot of money, maybe even more than $ 750,000.

The auction house Christie's offers the almost complete skeleton of the bird that was once native to Mauritius, an island nation located east of Madagascar. The bird unable to fly, a distant relative of the modern pigeon, has been extinct less than a century after its discovery by the Dutch explorers.

"The dodo is now extinct for a long time, we have access to it thanks to the reports of the seventeenth-century explorers, to the art they produced and inspired, and to the bones that have come down to us from Mauritius," wrote the auction house. "We know almost nothing about his diet, his habits, and his habits, yet he remains one of the most iconic birds of all time."

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"The almost complete composite skeleton from the fossil remains of Mare-aux-Songes and rare bones found by Etienne Thirioux, a Mauritian naturalist active at the turn of the 19th century", adds the description of the lot.

The skeleton put on sale was assembled by the French naturalist Paul Carié, whose family had owned since the 19th century, added the auction house.

The bidding starts at $ 500,000 on May 24 at 11:00 am local time and ranges from $ 508,400 to $ 762,600 in presale.

Sleeping birds are generally thought to be ignored or ignorant, but a 2016 study suggests that the species, which did not have a natural predator, was actually quite clever.

"His [brain size] no impressive size or size, it's exactly the size you would have predicted for its size, said Eugenia Gold, lead author of the study at the time. "So, if you take the size of the brain as an indicator of intelligence, dodos probably had a level of intelligence similar to that of pigeons.Of course, the intelligence is not limited to the overall size of the brain, but it gives us a basic measure. "

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Although it died out in 1681, the dodo was a formidable bird, reaching over 3 feet in height and weighing between 22 and 40 pounds.

However, National Geographic notes that it is "difficult to determine" to completely describe its appearance, as there is no complete specimen. "Most scientists think that the dodo was gray or brown with a gray head and yellowish legs," wrote National Geographic.

He also had a 9-inch beak, which was probably used for defense and to help him eat fruit, although scientists are not sure of his diet.

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