extinction...

[trix]

i wis readin 'iss book, an it tells me that by aboot 1683 'e dodo bird maybe, wis extinct, but by 1693.....they definately wis lek.

so some dude, 'e book disna reference his name but apparently, he wis 'e director 'o 'e Ashmolean museum in oxford.
so, he decided that 'e museums (only ever in'e world) stuffed dodo wis becoming ''unpleasantly musty'' an' ordered it til be ''tossed on 'e bonfire'' :eek:

some passer-by guy saw fit wis happenin an tried till tell him 'e crack but he widna listen. all 'e guy could save wis e heid an an limb.

is 'at sacrilege??????

choost for yer information...'e dodo bird wis fie 'e pigeon family. it wis beeg, but no tasty....2 an a half feet tall, two an a half feet wide, fie beak til tip o' 'e tail.

its weight wis never accurately recorded, tho...they hev 3 or 4 oil paintins dun by artists fie wie back.

they were flightless so they didna leave 'e groond, which left their eiggs an babies vulnerable til mownkeys, peegs an dowgs (brought to 'e island by outsiders)

i cana believe that someone wid hev 'e authority (an neck) til do such a thing...

so all 'e dodo birdy neeeded til survive, wis for humans no til exist.

i still think they should o' kept 'e last one (ever) preserved tho :(

whats yer take on'ed?

[Rheghead]

THe trouble that I feel with the dodo debate is that I think it has become a flagship event in the debate of how we humans effect the environment. The trouble with that is that we tend to pigeon-hole (no pun intended) issues discretely on a mental level without letting those same issues affect our daily lives. The fact that the dodo died out over 300 years ago doubly serves us to be indifferent to our malignancy towards the environment.

What we should be doing is focussing on species that have died recently and include those that aren't visually apparent and then focus on what contributed towards their demise. The dodo was only one species, and it was killed by us humans but by our own hands. That is an interingly and graphic tale to relay to an impressionable child.

But scientists say that up to a third of all species on the planet will be severely threatened or extinct by the end of this century if we don't curb global warming.

To tell an impressionable child that we have seen one of the largest global extinctions in the shortest time possible just because his granddad didn't support the building of his local windfarm, won't capture the same amount of juvenile imagination but the end result will be woefully worse than what Dutch explorers were accountable for in the 17th century.

A bloodless extinction is still an extinction...

[gleeber]

I would say it's a question of evolutionary psychology. In those days environmental issues were as welcomed or understood as racial issues were 50 years ago. Our emotional characters are continually evolving. Some people click onto the new evolutionary patterns quicker than some but those who are at the forefront of the evolutionary processes are usually slow at making their feelings felt because of ridicule from the masses.
I suppose there wasnt much support for the Dodo, dead or alive.

[Kodiak]

I think there are still specimins of the Dodo around the world in different Museum's. Here are a couple of photographs of two, one of which is in Mauritius.


http://i41.tinypic.com/ayqc2d.jpg


http://i41.tinypic.com/2yybkmt.jpg

K

[changilass]

Ugly looking brute.

[brandy]

they kinda look like several birds put together... were they not suppose to be exspecially stupid birds as well? which helped in their fast demise? or is that just a myth? obviously the term you big Dodo comes from the bird! *G*

[trix]

Ugly looking brute.

i dina think so...i think its prity smart lookin lek.

thanks for 'at pics kodiak...im really delited. i thought it wis 'e last one in 'e world (ever ever) 'at guy thro oot.

phew!!

[trix]

they kinda look like several birds put together... were they not suppose to be exspecially stupid birds as well? which helped in their fast demise? or is that just a myth? obviously the term you big Dodo comes from the bird! *G*

they were rether short on insight when it came til identifyin danger...they were ignorant til 'e danger that humans could cause them.

they didna hev 'e sense til run awie fie danger...if ye cought one cheil an hed it skweelin, all his little buddies would waddle oot til see what 'e crack wis...

definately no 'e brightest....

[Green_not_greed]

THe trouble that I feel with the dodo debate is that I think it has become a flagship event in the debate of how we humans effect the environment. The trouble with that is that we tend to pigeon-hole (no pun intended) issues discretely on a mental level without letting those same issues affect our daily lives. The fact that the dodo died out over 300 years ago doubly serves us to be indifferent to our malignancy towards the environment.

What we should be doing is focussing on species that have died recently and include those that aren't visually apparent and then focus on what contributed towards their demise. The dodo was only one species, and it was killed by us humans but by our own hands. That is an interingly and graphic tale to relay to an impressionable child.

But scientists say that up to a third of all species on the planet will be severely threatened or extinct by the end of this century if we don't curb global warming.

To tell an impressionable child that we have seen one of the largest global extinctions in the shortest time possible just because his granddad didn't support the building of his local windfarm, won't capture the same amount of juvenile imagination but the end result will be woefully worse than what Dutch explorers were accountable for in the 17th century.

A bloodless extinction is still an extinction...

But how do you tell your grandchild that because you supported said local windfarm the highly-protected local goose population was wiped out within a couple of years which is why its no longer in the area?

[Thomas Farmer]

The existing speciemens of Dodo birds in musems, have been put together using bones from various Dodo's found on digs in mauritius. as trix implies There are no complete Dodo birds in any museums.
as a matter of intrest a large fish that lived 410 million years ago and thought to be extinct was caught by fishermen in 1938 and then another one was caught in Indonesian waters in 1998, so keep your eyes peeled for that elusive Dodo Trix, you just never know..

[George Brims]

That was the coelacanth, thought to be extinct after the late Devonian period. There have been quite a few specimens caught, though they are now a protected species. The ones in the Western Indian Ocean and those around Indonesia are thought to be separate sub-species.

[JAWS]

Extinction has been happening for almost as long as life has existed. All life forms become extinct eventually, that is how room is created for new species to evolve, it is a perfectly natural process. .
It certainly isn’t something which has been invented by humans and, by comparison, natural events are far more destructive in the long run, ask the next dinosaur you see.
It would not be the first time that 95% of all life forms had become extinct at one time. Life just shrugs and gets on with it by moving to the next stage.
Unless you are a Creationist who believes that everything that is always has been and that everything which has been always will be.

[Rheghead]

But how do you tell your grandchild that because you supported said local windfarm the highly-protected local goose population was wiped out within a couple of years which is why its no longer in the area?

Big assumption there that a single windfarm can wipe out a species in 2 years. Geese are particularly sensitive to weather patterns so anything that stabilises weather from the rigours of global warming must by definition protect the habitat of the geese.

5 birds per year per turbine isn't gonna cause an extinction. Uncheck global warming will. Fact not fiction.

The higher authorities of bird protection have deemed it prudent to allow the intentional wiping out of your said highly-protected local goose populations around airports, which is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases this planet faces. So there you go, damage to our planet in tandem, hypocrisy at its finest? Where is your sense priority there or are you a frequent overseas traveller?

[dellwak]

[quote=JAWS;500063]Extinction has been happening for almost as long as life has existed. All life forms become extinct eventually, that is how room is created for new species to evolve, it is a perfectly natural process. .
It certainly isn’t something which has been invented by humans and, by comparison, natural events are far more destructive in the long run, ask the next dinosaur you see.
quote]

You are of course right Jaws in stating that extinctions have been happening since life began.
However, the animals and plants that are being wiped out today are not disappearing to make room for new species, they are being driven to extinction to make room for more human beings. This is not a natural process. This new round of extinctions has most certainly been invented and carried out by humans.
Getting back to the Dodo.
This dopy, friendly, flightless pigeon was wiped out by European sailors who thought it was great sport clubing them to death, especially as the Dodo wouldn't run away. The poor old Dodo didn't even know to run away, there had never been anything for it to run away from. They weren't even killed for their meat because the Dodo tasted yukkie.
By the time the idea of running away from humans had seeped into the Dodo's brain, it was too late. There were no Dodo's left.
I expect to see between 25 and 50 large mammals wiped from the face of the earth in my lifetime. These will not disappear because they have been out performed by rival species, but because humans have a use for bits of them or want their habitats or just don't like them around.
This is not extinction - this is murder.