95% complete dodo skeleton to sell in November

Summers Place Auctions is offering a 95% complete dodo skeleton in its November 22 sale.

It's the most intact dodo to be offered at auction in almost a century, with only a small section of skull missing.

dodo summers place
The dodo - disgusting but delicious according to the Dutch 

It looks likely to sell for a sum in the six figure range.

The dodo was a flightless bird native to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

It was discovered by Dutch sailors in the late 1500s, who named it "walckvogel" meaning "disgusting bird" - which seems a little unfair.

Despite its unfortunate looks, it reportedly tasted delicious. Within 60 years it had been hunted to extinction by a combination of rats and sailors.

The skeleton is formed from a variety of dodos, most of which were discovered in a swamp on the south of the island.

The auction house director, Rupert van der Werff, told the BBC: "The rarity and completeness of this specimen cannot be overemphasised.

"It provides a unique opportunity for an individual or an institution to own a specimen of this great icon of extinction."

Even fragments of dodo bone have sold for large sums in the past, with part of a femur achieving £8,125 ($10,720) in 2013.

While we don't have a dodo, we do have some other incredible items for sale.

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