Prospect Ave. & E. 149th St., Bronx, (1989 & 1992)

Rita Hayworth

Team work

liuyuan留园 garden, suzhou, jiangsu province in china by 飞行圆

(via Instagram)

Gone, but not forgotten. 🦤 Today’s Exhibit of the Day is one of the most famous birds in history: the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus). This iconic species is a lesson in extinction. Around the year 1600, Dutch soldiers found the Dodo on Mauritius Island, east of Madagascar. Less than 80 years later, it was gone. Deforestation, hunting, and the introduction of invasive species contributed to the downfall of this flightless bird.

Though it died out before photography, the Dodo’s skeleton offers clues about what this species was like. For example, this bird couldn’t fly—its wings were small for its size, its sternum had no keel (the support birds need for flight muscles), and it had thick leg bones made for walking. You can see a Dodo skeleton in the Museum’s Hall of Biodiversity.

Photo: D. Finnin/ © AMNH

diana ross photographed in 1975

jinhuasi金华寺, chengdu, sichuan province in china by 旅行的蒋半仙

zhongguo yuanzi·mengxiyuan, 中国院子·梦溪苑, hangzhou, jiangsu province of china. photo by 黑毛不紧张