The Mare aux Songes ()

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

is a

lagerstätte A Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These for ...

located close to the sea in south eastern

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. Many

subfossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, Seashell, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects pre ...

of recently

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...

s were found there.

History

In 1865, government

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

Mahébourg Mahébourg is a small town on the south-eastern coast of the island of Mauritius, having a population of 15,457 as of 2015.Digest of Demographic Statistics 2015; Available at http://statsmauritius.govmu.org/English/Pages/POPULATION--And-VITAL-STAT ...

, George Clark, finally found an abundance of

subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

dodo bones in the swamp of Mare aux Songes in Southern Mauritius, after searching for thirty years, having been inspired by Strickland & Melville's monograph about the bird. In 1866, Clark explained his procedure to

The Ibis ''Ibis'' (formerly ''The Ibis''), subtitled ''the International Journal of Avian Science'', is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. It was established in 1859. Topics covered include ecology, conservation, be ...

, an ornithology journal: Dodo-Skeleton Natural History Museum London England

Remains of over 300 dodos were found in the swamp, but only very few skull and wing bones among them, which may be explained by the upper bodies having been washed away or scavenged while the lower body was trapped, which is similar to the way many

moa Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. The term has also come to be used for chicken in many Polynesian cultures and is found in the names of many chicken recipes, such as Kale moa and Moa Samoa. Moa or MOA may also refe ...

remains have been found in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

marshes. In 1889, Théodor Sauzier was commissioned to find more dodo remains in the Mare aux Songes. He was successful, and also found remains of other extinct species. Twenty-six museums worldwide have significant holdings of dodo material, almost all found in the Mare aux Songes. In October 2005, after a hundred years of neglect, a part of the Mare aux Songes swamp was excavated by an international team of researchers. To prevent

Malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, the British had covered the swamp in hard core during their rule over Mauritius, which had to be removed. Many remains were found, including bones of dodos in various stages of maturity, and several bones obviously from the skeleton of one individual dodo, which have been preserved in their natural position. These findings were made public in December 2005 in the

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

museum in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. Of the fossils found in the swamp, 63% belonged to turtles of the extinct genus ''

Cylindraspis ''Cylindraspis'' is a genus of recently extinct giant tortoises. All of its species lived in the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius, Rodrigues and Réunion) in the Indian Ocean and all are now extinct due to hunting and introduction of non-native pre ...

'', and 7.1% belonged to dodos, which had been deposited within several centuries, 4000 years ago. Subsequent excavations suggested that dodos, along with other animals, became mired in the Mare aux Songes while trying to reach water during a long period of severe drought about 4,200 years ago.

Paleofauna

The following animals have been identified from fossils in the Mare aux Songes.

Birds

Reptiles

Mammals

References

{{coord, -20.447, 57.696, type:landmark_region:MU, display=title Pleistocene paleontological sites of Africa Wetlands of Mauritius Swamps of Africa Lagerstätten