The curious case of the dodo – Science Weekly podcast

This week: Nicola Davis investigates the death by fowl play of one of the world's most famous dodo specimens. So what do we know about the dodo as a species? And what questions does this murder case raise?

Subscribe and review on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom and Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter

The dodo has long been extinct. Renderings of what the birds sounded like or even looked like are largely the imaginings of artists, based on centuries-old descriptions and drawings. But in recent years, scientists have been able to piece together clues to understand the life of this captivating creature. Now, findings have revealed that the world's best-preserved specimen, known as the Oxford dodo, was the victim of fowl play centuries ago.

To explore what experts know about the dodo and this new murder case, Nicola Davis speaks to Delphine Angst, a palaeontologist and first author of a study on dodo bone histology, and Paul Smith, director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.