This Famous Dodo Didn't Just Die—It Was Murdered

New analysis of one of the best preserved specimens of the extinct animal shows it was shot in the head. Scientists uncovered the gruesome demise of the only known dodo specimen to contain soft tissue. While conducting scans to learn about its physiology, lead shot pellets were detected in the back of its skull.

Popularly known as the Oxford Dodo, the bird was previously thought to have lived in a 17th-century London townhouse. Once native to Mauritius, dodos are one of the most iconic examples of human-caused extinction—they were last seen alive in 1662.