Fight club: a unique weapon in the wing of the solitaire,Pezophaps solitaria (Aves: Columbidae), an extinct flightless bird from Rodrigues,Mascarene Islands

The solitaire (Columbidae; Pezophaps solitaria) of Rodrigues was an extinct giant flightless pigeon and the sister taxon to the dodo (Columbidae; Raphus cucullatus) from neighbouring Mauritius. The appearance and behaviour of the solitaire was recorded in detail by two observers before it became extinct in the mid 1700s. They described a prominent wing structure termed the ‘musket ball’ (carpal knob), which was used as a weapon and to produce an audible signal by either sex in territorial combat. Our study of subfossil solitaire bones from cave localities shows that the carpal knob formed after skeletal maturity, and reached its greatest size in adult males. We describe the morphology of the carpal knob, including its histology in thin section. It is an outgrowth of the processus extensorius of the carpometacarpus, but differs morphologically from homologous structures in other bird taxa, and thus is unique in Aves. We also compare the pectoral and wing osteology of the solitaire with that of the dodo, which had a similar morphology, but lacked any bony outgrowths on the wing. Furthermore, we suggest some biological and environmental factors leading to the evolution of this remarkable and unique carpal weapon. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 110 , 32–44.     

A newly-discovered early depiction of the Dodo (Aves: Columbidae: Raphus cucullatus) by Roelandt Savery,with a note on another previously unnoticed Savery Dodo

Abstract

The aim of this note is to bring to wider attention a painting, entitled The Temptation of Saint Anthony, by Roelandt Savery sold at Sotheby’s London on 7th December 2016. This work of c.1611–1613 includes a depiction of the head of a dodo (Raphus cucullatus), here argued to be probably his earliest depiction of the dodo and apparently one based upon a preserved specimen. The date of the other putatively early Savery dodo (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Berlin, Inv. No. 717a), cited as 1611 by some, is also discussed, and shown to be almost certainly a late work. In addition, another depiction of the dodo by Savery, in the National Museum of Warsaw, also previously unnoticed in the ornithological literature, is documented.