The dodo's personal date of extinction remains speculative, but it is widely accepted that it happened between 1688 and 1715 and was mostly caused by human intervention. The etymology of their name is also rather unclear. Some suggest that it is an onomatopoeic approximation of it's call "doo-doo". Still, others believe that it comes from the Portuguese word for fool: doudo. 
Dodos rose to prominence with the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. One made a brief appearance in chapter 3, where he conducts a Caucus race where an assortment of animals runs around in circles, starting and stopping whenever they pleased, and bestowing Alice with her own thimble after she has given all the participants the comfits in her pocket.


These oddly shaped, flightless birds have become a symbol for things that have dropped into antiquity or extinction.