Dodo

The dodo bird was a large, ugly bird incapable of flying. They weighed an astounding 50 pounds and lived on the islands of Mauritius off the coast of east Africa.

The dodo bird went extinct in the 1600s, and environmentalists blame human activity for this extinction. In fact, numerous species go extinct every decade with or without human activity.

The dodo has become emblematic for extinction, as in the expression "as dead as the dodo." Humorist Will Cuppy wrote, jokingly:

The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for.