The Earth had the Dodo Bird for a mere one million years… since about the middle of the Pleistocene Epoch, the Dodo Bird had been evolving on the very secluded island of Mauritius. It started, of course, as a flying bird; evolving from the ancestor of pigeons. The last Dodo was, by some accounts, documented in 1662. But there have been other writings, albeit not as reliable, that have the last one in 1690. Some say that it was another flightless bird that may have been confused with the Dodo in those later years… a bird called a Red Rail (which, by the way, was also made extinct!). In any case, the latter half of the 17th century is when the last bird lived and died (because he was touched by Man).

The Pleistocene Epoch is the time period that began about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago. The most recent Ice Age occurred then. So the Dodos lived through the second half of the Pleistocene, and through the first 98% of the Holocene Epoch, which is what we are in now. It shared the Earth with this magnificent terrifying beast, the Woolly Rhinoceros, a classic example of the megafauna of the Pleistocene, which disappeared right after the Holocene started. They shared the Earth, but not the island where the Dodo lived.

A million years of existence isn’t particularly long for certain bird species. You can compare the Dodo’s time with the Osprey, for instance.

Osprey have been around, relatively unchanged, for about 13,000,000 years… since the Miocene Epoch. Compared to that, the Dodo was a new-comer. Dodo, we hardly knew ya.

Here is a chart to put it all into perspective:

The exact start and end times for the various Eras, Periods, and Epochs are unfortunately not universally agreed upon. But… what’s a million years, give or take, between friends…?

If you’d like to read the unfortunate story about the very last, and lonely Dodo Bird… Stefan Pociask's answer to What happened to the last Dodo Bird?

I’ve written quite a number of articles about the Dodo Bird. They are a fascinating bird to study. But besides what I’ve written, I also have a bit of a personal connection. If we use the “Kevin Bacon” method of determining how many degrees separates us from any person or thing… I could say that I’m a mere two degrees away from Dodos. You see… I’m a Mechanical Engineer, and I used to work at a company in the tiny little backwoods town of Stanley, North Carolina. This particular company manufactures big huge machines for the textile industry. The purpose of one of those machines is that it adds indigo dye to a specific kind of cotton cloth, which in turn is used to make denim… or “blue jeans”. Well… there is a company on the tiny island of Mauritius, which is where Dodos lived and died, and they wanted to be able to make their own denim cloth. And, as fate would have it… I designed a good portion of that machine which got shipped to Mauritius! Unfortunately, I wasn’t chosen to make the trip to the other side of the world, to install that machine; a buddy of mine went. But… my machine now makes jeans cloth in the land of the Dodo! Thank you—thank you… I know. That’s pretty awesome. I agree!

But, uh—yeah… so, that happened…

And.. on an unrelated issue… but very important to me…

I was absolutely certain that by now, I wouldn’t need to re-post this. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I, personally, am still in a desperate situation. I’m still near eviction, after my long illnesses and operations. Still unable to get a job that will pay the April rent & electric bill, preferably a job in my field. Over 150 of you all have helped me when I needed it most, And I’m eternally grateful. But still, nobody is hiring me for the past 8 months, despite my best efforts of searching for 10–14 hours a day. You’ve been my only income, and have literally kept a roof over my head and the lights on, for many months.

I did manage to freelance as a mechanical designer for several weeks, working on a project, designing a wildlife camera for NOAA. But that ended and my 467 resumes (as of today, March 16) I sent out so far are still being ignored. I’m 61. I don’t know how much my age is the reason. All I can do is keep trying, 7 days a week. Trying not to let depression and constant anxiety get the best of me. It’s getting really difficult. With deepest appreciation, and humility, bordering on shame… (desperation is trumping the shame at this point)… I thank you again!

I’m not usually a “taker”, but at this point, I have no choice.

Would you mind reading this link of mine?