Alice, Hogwarts and Dodo - Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

renzoarg (68)in #science • 7 years ago

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a book written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson -also known as Lewis Carrol-, is not only know because of its satirical references to education and politics (in the 19th century). It is also known because it revolves around logic games, this, made it a unique story.
Even when the entire text is a lovely blend of fantasy and reality, many of the characters that some believe are part of the "fantasy" blend, are actually real.

Original illustration of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by John Tenniel 1865
Source in Image

One of them is the Dodo, a rather surrealistic bird that in one of the chapters invites the others to dry after getting soaked in the Pool of Tears.
We will never be able to meet Dodo in person, neither in the fictional or real world, because, in our reality the Dodo is extinct. This was neither thanks to natural phenomenon or and outdated genome, this was one of the first examples of how humankind's actions can hurt the environment.
As a side note, according to a hypothesis, the extinction of the Dodo led into the near-extinction of a tree...

A bird that could not fly.

The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird from the island of Mauritius.
Since its extinction was during the 17th century we know very little about its anatomy and biology beyond what some texts and paintings recorded... Many of them are not concurrent, which forces us to consider that there's flawed data in some of them.
The traditional image the Dodo had was of a clumsy and foolish bird. This was what gave it it's name. As the Portuguese arrived to the Island they called it doudo: This meant "Fool, silly" in the Portuguese slang of that time.
Several contemporary studies have debunked that myth of "fat and clumsy bird". Mauritius has dry and wet seasons, it is estimated that birds gained weight until the end of the wet season and lost weight when food was scarce, during the dry season. Besides that, the portrayed Dodos were very probably captive, and overfed.

They were around 70cm (roughly 2.3 ft) tall weighted 15 to 25 kg (33 to 55 lbs), with a sternum that was not good for flight. as a result, they were ground birds that fed on fruits and nuts they could crack open with their beaks.
The absolute isolation of the island made them grow and evolve with no significant natural predators: This was, very likely, they reason why they were flightless; for generations they never had the need to fly and escape, they had no natural selection pressure on that side.

Coat of arms of Mauritius. As you may observe the Dodo is part of it.
Source in Image

Extinction, thanks to mankind.

That place remained untouched by mankind until the 16th century. The first news we've about this animal date back to 1574. As people arrived, new species proliferated in the island, swines, rats; new diseases too; and, the destruction of the woods!
Since the natural environment of the Dodo lacked of any predators, this creature had literally no idea of what "fear" was. This, added up to their inability to fly made them perfect targets for hunters (yes, because hunting an animal that neither wants or can escape is SOOO HONORABLE for hunters).
By the end of the 17th century, 100 years after mankind arrived there, the Dodo was extinct. Very few noticed it even happened, yet, during the beginning of the 19th century the interest on this bird was revived as some hint of a few remaining ones was found in a swamp in the island... and Lewis Carrol's book popularity.

Today, if you ask any child or teenager about what a Dodo is, the most likely response you'd get is that it is a mythological creature.
Yes, the Dodo is still known for some people that still reads (because, lets face it, almost nobody reads). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a classic yet other books talk about them too!
J. K. Rowling, the author that stole Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" and made it a retarded children story about a mage that cannot cast magic while the "impure" co-protagonist does all the hard work having to save his sorry ass in EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER created the Harry Potter universe describes the Dodo as a magic creature the "Diricawl", that has the ability to become invisible to Muggles (non-magic humans) and this is why "people" believe they are extinct...
Perhaps...