Provenance and history of the Thirioux dodos

ABSTRACTThe exact provenance of the two associated dodo skeletons collected in the vicinity of Port Louis, Mauritius, around the turn of the 19th century is shrouded in mystery, as well as their collector, the amateur naturalist and barber Louis Etienne Thirioux (1846–1917). The most complete specimen resides in the Mauritius Institute, Port Louis, whereas the second, which is a partial composite, is in the Durban Natural Science Museum (South Africa). Early correspondence between Thirioux and Alfred Newton, Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University, detailed museum records kept by Ernest Chubb from the Durban Natural Science Museum, and early photographic records of Thirioux's finds shed some light on the early history of the specimens. The Port Louis specimen appears to consist of the bones of a single bird, apart from what appear to be an extra pair of lacrimals, and is essentially complete, including, for instance, the wrist bones, the patella, and the tarsal sesamoid, with ...