Rare dodo skeleton to be sold in Sussex next week

One of the most iconic of all extinct species - a dodo - is to go on sale in Sussex next week.
Dodo skeleton SUS-160824-163843001Dodo skeleton SUS-160824-163843001
Dodo skeleton SUS-160824-163843001

A rare skeleton of the flightless bird has been painstakingly pieced together over the last 40 years, bone by bone.

It is now expected to fetch up to £500,000 when it goes under the hammer at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst on November 22.

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It is believed the dodo is the first complete skeleton to be offered at auction.

Only one dodo skeleton exists that is made up from the bones of a single animal; the others - and there are only a dozen that are relatively complete - are composites made up from bones that belonged to several individuals.

Errol Fuller, Summers Place Auctions’ Natural History curator said: “I am sure I won’t be the only one among dodo experts who thinks that this is an amazingly rare opportunity for the acquisition of one of the

great icons of extinction.”

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