Take a Ride on the Dodo-Go-Round

Paris is so beautiful it can make your head spin. It can make the rest of you spin too, because the city is crawling with wonderful carousels. Around every corner is another chance to hop on a wooden horse and bob up and down as the sites of the city whirl past. Some are as frilly as Cinderella's gown, some are bright and covered in a thousand twinkling lights, and some are even two-stories tall. 

But this is the story of one very special carousel. When I first saw it, I grabbed my camera to take a photo of the "funny" giraffes spinning around and around. The giraffes were "funny", because instead of their horns being just little furry bumps, they were flat sprawling moose antlers. Instead of long lady-like necks that swayed like breezy palms, they had stout strong necks like galloping horses. I thought they looked magical. Maybe some happy French kids astride some unicorns and griffins would spin around next.

But a one-horned shiny-maned steed is not what spun into view. Where an elegant magical beast like the "wild moose-giraffe" should be was a dumpy little bird with a beak the size of a banana. "Hey, that's a dodo!" I said. Then I read the name of the carousel: The Dodo Merry-Go-Round.

Duh! These weren't magical creatures; these were extinct creatures. What a marvelous idea! What a wonderful lesson this would be! 

So here it is: A little lesson compliments of the Dodo-Go-Round.

 

Click the play button to see the the Dodo-Go-Round in action.

Dodo [Click on the bold titles to learn more.]

Here's the bird you probably all know. You'll never see one alive, but some people did. The last dodo walked around the island of Mauritius more than 300 years ago. People are the reason there are no more dodos, but it's not because they killed and ate them all. In fact, people even made a point to write down how bad dodos tasted. But when humans came to the island, they brought other animals like pigs, dogs, and parrots and it was those animals that ended up eating dodo eggs and hogging all the food that normally fed the dodo.

Elephant Bird

And you thought ostriches were big? Well, ostriches are like little chickens compared to this long-necked fellow. In fact, this bird really was as big as Big Bird on Sesame Street. If one walked into your room right now, the feathers on it's head would be scraping the ceiling. They weighed 1,000 pounds (that's as much as an entire class of kindergartners). And where did these giants live? Well, they actually lived in Madagascar and people still find their enormous fossilized eggs that can fit over 150 chicken eggs inside. 

Glyptodon

If a small car suddenly sprouted four short strong legs and started eating your front lawn, it would be something like the glyptodon. Go back 12,000 years to the end of the last ice age and you might find one of the of these giant armadillo-turtle-bears. They came up to your teacher's chin, were as long as a car and were covered in fur and had a very heavy turtle-like shell on their back and a helmet on their head.

Barbary Lion

Hey, lions aren't extinct! You're right. But there's not just one species of lion. Just like there are more than one species of squirrel. This species lion is called a Barbary lion and it is extinct, but you can still go see one run around and hear it roar. Wait, that doesn't make any sense? Right again. Just like there is more than one kind of lion, there is more than one kind of extinct. Truly extinct animals like the dodo are all dead and gone, but the Barbary lion is extinct in the wild, which means the only living animals are found in zoos not in the forests, mountains or deserts.

Mountain Gorilla

Now I'll make it even a little more confusing. This is a mountain gorilla and they are not extinct at all. You don't have to go to the zoo to see one. You could hop on a jet and fly to the mountains in the middle of Africa. The few mountain gorillas that still survive in the wild have to compete for food and land with humans who are farming and fighting on the edge of the forests where they live. That is why they are a critically endangered (not extinct) species. There are only about 700 of these gorillas left in the world. That's about the number of students at Littlebrook and Community Park.

Triceratops

This is one you already know a lot about, so I won't say too much about this extinct and pointy boy. I will say that those three sharp horns were not for fighting hungry toothy foes like t-rex. A lot of scientists now believe they were for finding a date. They are like the pretty red feathers on a male cardinal (that bright red bird we have flitting around Princeton). In other words, they didn't use their horns for poking things; they used them to look pretty. 

African Elephant

This is another pointy creature, but this one is not extinct...yet. It is endangered, because people have destroyed a lot of their habitat. But the biggest problem is that some people would kill the giant plant eaters just to cut off their tusks and sell them. But the people who shot the elephants aren't the only ones to blame. The people who bought things made of the elephant ivory are just as responsible too. Most people don't buy things made of ivory anymore and the African elephant is making a pretty good comeback right now, but not everywhere. 

Tasmanian Wolf

This is the most recent of the animals on the Dodo-Go-Round to disappear. The last poor wolf died in a zoo in Tasmania in 1936. Most of them were killed by hunters for reward money or by farmers to protect their animals. This was an extraordinary wolf. It had a pouch like a kangaroo and could open its mouth as wide as a rattlesnake. This wolf almost became the first extinct animal to be brought back to to life. A few years ago, scientists began to try and clone a brand new Tasmanian Wolf from some of the old dead wolves in museums. They haven't done it yet, but who knows. Maybe when you are older the Tasmanian wolf won't be extinct anymore. How amazing is that? Do you think they should bring dinosaurs back to life too?

Horned Tortoise

Now that's one angry-looking turtle. Well, maybe that's not fair. First of all, it's hard to smile when you have a beak. Second of all, tortoises aren't turtles. Well, even that isn't completely true (science can be a bit confusing sometimes). All tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. Sort of like all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Tortoises spend their lives on land and only go into the water to drink or take a bath. The last horned tortoise died 2,000 years ago. If one of these armored giants could have stood up on it's back legs it would be about as tall as Yao Ming (but sadly, their sharp claws made them terrible at dribbling...just kidding...about the dribbling...they did actually have sharp claws).

Giant Panda

We all know a good bit about this black and white bear, so I'll keep it simple but interesting. The Panda is not extinct, but it is most certainly endangered. The only place to find them is in China. Panda babies are not only absurdly cute, they are also the tiniest mammal babies in the world. When they are born, their mother is 900 times bigger! If that were true for you, your mom would be the size of a small school bus. Or, if your mom was the same size she is now, you would have to be born about the size and weight of a nickel.

Sivatherium

And finally, the giraffe-moose thingy. This is actually one of the great-great-great-great grandparents of the giraffes we know and love today. The last sivatherium lived in Africa about 8,000 years ago and some old cave paintings even show these shorter horned giraffes. They actually had two sets of horns: one larger set on top and a smaller set closer to the eyes. Giraffes today only have one smaller set of fur-covered horns on top. And giraffes have really grown "up" in the past 8,000 years too. Have your teacher hold her hand in the air. That's about as tall as big sivatherium. Now have your teacher stand on another teacher's shoulders. Then have those two teachers stand on another teacher's shoulders. Then still have your teacher reach up her hand and she might be able to scratch one of the furry horns on a modern male giraffe. They're big (giraffes, not your teachers).