Dodo bones are exceptionally rare; though not, unfortunately, as rare as the dodo itself. Their name offers a valuable clue as to why, it being thought to derive from the Dutch word dodaersen – ‘big bottom’. For the Dutch sailors who arrived in Mauritius – the only island on earth where dodos lived – after many weeks at sea, these large rumps not only meant they were slow and easy prey, but also promised a plentiful dinner.

This bone would have connected the thigh and foot bones, as can best be seen from James Erxleben’s lithograph of a dodo skeleton, assembled by the 19th century anatomist Richard Owen.