Auction house to sell composite skeleton of a dodo bird

LONDON – The dodo bird is extinct — but one collector can now have their own dodo skeleton.

Summers Place Auctions is selling what it describes as a rare composite skeleton of a dodo bird, a creature once found on the island of Mauritius. It comes from a collector who compiled the bones from private collections and auctions in the 1970s and ’80s.

Although individual bones of the flightless bird come up for sale occasionally, Summers Place director Rupert van der Werff says this is the first time a nearly complete skeleton has come up for sale since the early 20th century.

There’s no guide price for the skeleton.

Sailors hunted the dodo into extinction in the 17th century, and the bird has come to symbolize man’s harsh impact on the natural world.