Has any animal suffered greater ignominy than the ill-fated dodo?  "A strange and grotesque specimen of bird... bearing a ridiculous bent bill," was the verdict of early 17th century Dutch admiral and explorer Wybrand van Warwijck. The skeleton of a dodo, at the Museum of Natural History in Paris [Credit: AFP/Joel Saget]Subsequent expeditions of sailors feasted on the helpless fowl even as they disparaged the flavour of its flesh...

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