Description
One observer described the Rodrigues Solitaire as the size of a swan. Sexual size dimorphism in this species is perhaps the greatest in any carinate bird. Males were considerably larger than females, measuring 90 cm (35 inches) in length and weighing up to 28 kg (62 pounds), whereas females were 70 cm (28 inches) and weighed 17 kg (37 pounds). Their weight may have varied substantially due to fat cycles, meaning that individuals were fat during cool seasons, but slim during hot seasons, and may have been as low as 21 kg in males and 13 kg in females. Their plumage was grey and brown. Females were paler than males and had light-coloured elevations on the lower neck. A black band (an original description says frontlet) appears on its head just behind the base of its beak. Its beak was slightly hooked, and its neck and legs were long. The skull was 170 millimetres (6.7 in) long, flattened at the top with the fore and hind parts elevated into two bony ridges structured with cancellous bone.
Both sexes possessed a large a tuberous knob of bone situated at the base of the carpometacarpus of each wrist. The knobs were about half the length of the metacarpus, and were larger in males than females. In life, these knobs would have been covered by tough skin and used as weapons.
The Solitaire shared traits with the Dodo (its closest relative) such as size and features in the skull, pelvis and sternum. It differed in other aspects; it was taller and more slender than the Dodo and had a smaller skull and beak, a flatter skull roof and larger orbits. Its neck and legs were proportionally longer, and the Dodo did not possess a wrist-knob equivalent. Many skeletal features of the Solitaire and Dodo that are unique among pigeons have evolved to adapt to flightlessness. Their pelvic elements were thicker than those of flighted birds (to support their greater weight), and their pectoral region and wings were paedomorphic (underdeveloped, retaining juvenile features). However, the skull, trunk and pelvic limbs were peramorphic (changing considerably with maturity).
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