TH E D OD O IN P OP C U LTU R E DUNCAN1890
(left) The 3-D printer in Claessens' lab in O'Neil Hall slowly prints each bone—some larger ones in segments—of the dodo skeleton that they scanned in Mauritius back in 2011. Claessens' Dodo Memoir, a scientific description of each bone in the dodo skeleton, published by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, sits in front of the printer.
the 3-D scanner at the ready. “Though that specimen is not a single bird, it is still the second-most complete dodo,” Claessens says. “A foot had been in Oxford, a head from somewhere else and yet another location had once held one beak bone. Can you see how easy it would be to lose the dodo? Even the marsh where Richard Owen [who studied the dodo in the 1800s] collected his specimens was lost in the 1940s when it was filled in, because it was a breeding ground for mosquitoes …That poor dodo just doesn’t seem to have much luck.”
3-D PRINTING THE DODO SKELETON
T
he work on the memoir allowed other students to take part in the dodo adventure. Kristina Washer ’17, a biology major from Bedford, Mass., dissected pigeons, a relative of the dodo, and found much to learn. She dove into extensive notes on musculature on their legs and used 3-D software to compare skeletons of the dodo to those of pigeons. “I now have a deeper understanding of functional anatomy,” Washer says. “And when I first started, I had only seen dodos in the movie "Ice Age." It’s fascinating to try to work with the skeleton.” Theresa St. James ’16, a biology major from Mansfield, Mass., has also been working with the scans and has found Claessens’ lab to be very focused. “I’ve been a part of research labs in the past, but this is more specific work, where we can create an entire project on an amazing scale,” she says. Still, the 3-D software was a major challenge throughout. “It’s one of those things where you have to teach yourself so much, but a year later, I’m fluent in the technology, and it’s like second nature to me,” St. James says, proudly. “It’s tough because there’s not a lot of literature out there, and you have to play around with it, but that encourages problem-solving.
O
h, those Tae Kwon Dodos!—"Ice Age" doesn’t exactly help the dodo cause, as the dodo characters in this movie will seemingly do anything for a melon, including go over a cliff. You might even argue they’re more like turkeys, with the gobble-like sounds they make as they singlemindedly romp for the fruit. But, as they often say, “It’s just a movie!” “Everybody has won … ”–So says the dodo in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—as the bird encourages the caucus race in the timeless story. In the 1950s animated Disney film, the dodo is presented in an energetic, fun spirit. In Tim Burton’s big-screen
version of "Alice in Wonderland," the dodo is more subdued, with a darker hue to his coloring. “Went the way of the dodo”—This phrase is often used to describe something or someone whose time has passed, or is out of touch. Put it this way—if a department store is said to have gone “the way of the dodo,” you probably won’t be shopping there. Tabitha–Kids have their secrets, but in the TV show "Bewitched," Tabitha goes a little too far by keeping a Macedonian dodo bird hidden in her room. It wasn't quite the scale of the skeletons Claessens has been working with: Hollywood made its dodo a little bit more like the San Diego Chicken. ■
T H E D O D O I N P O P C U LT U R E / GOING THE WAY OF THE D OD O / 51