The skeleton of extinct birds cost more than $ 430,000

The skeleton of the dodo bird, which appeared in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", has been sold for nearly half a million dollars in an auction in England.

The nearly complete skeleton of the dodo bird (Raphus cucullatus) has been sold for more than $ 430,000 at an auction in the UK, CNN reported on November 23.

The extinct dodo bird skeleton was sold for $ 430,000.(Photo: Summer's Place Auctions).

A collector has spent more than four decades buying loose pieces of bone and combining them into sets, missing only a part of the skull and a set of claws.

"I always thought that the skeleton would be one of our most famous items , " said Erroll Fuller, who was in charge of the auction.

Fuller said the dodo bird story is always attractive to natural history lovers.

"Dodo birds are especially famous since appearing in the book" Alice's Adventures in Wonderland "by writer Lewist Caroll in 1865. However, it has been a symbol before , " Fuller commented.

Dodo birds originated in Mauritius , the island nation of southwestern Indian Ocean. It was discovered for the first time by European sailors in the 16th century. Because it was impossible to fly, the dodo easily became the prey of hunters and predators.

The image recreates the dodo bird.(Photo: Nature).

"After the man brought the dog, the monkey came here and started hunting dodo, it was extinct," Fuller said.

The majority of the remaining skeletons of dodo are being kept in natural history museums.

"There are a total of 12 near-complete dodo skeletons in the world. In it, only one is from a complete dodo. The rest of the bones are synthesized from many different dodo," Fuller said.