[In the Press<\/a>]<\/p>\n The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an giant, extinct, flightless pigeon from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. From the time Mauritius was discovered, dodos lasted less than 100 years before their extinction at human hands.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n We examined the brain of the dodo and several other pigeons and found that the dodo and its closest relative, the Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitairia<\/i>) both have enlarged olfactory bulbs, probably for sniffing out ripe fruit and buried prey. The dodo also had strangely shaped semicircular canals, for which a biological interpretation is lacking as no other bird shares this feature.<\/p>\n We performed a brain volume to body size regression and found that the dodo fell on the line with other pigeons, meaning its brain size was proportional to its body size. Though there are more factors involved in intelligence, we used brain size as a rough proxy to support a level of intelligence for dodos similar to the common pigeon.<\/p>\n [Link to abstract<\/a>]<\/p>\n _______________________<\/p>\n