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Dodo is an extinct bird and was always thought to symbolize stupidity. However, a new research counters that belief by revealing that dodo was actually very smart. The brain size of Dodo with regards to its body size was equal to that of present day pigeon.

The new study discovered that how little is known about the biology of bird that became extinct due to humans. Eugenia Gold, research associate at American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Graduate School and lead author of the study, said that they ran a CT Scan of dodo specimen. With the help of scan, the researchers discovered that dodo's brain was same size as that of the pigeon today. It was also revealed that the bird had heightened sense of smell, reported Microcap Magazine

"We used brain volume or size as a proxy for intelligence, and since the dodo brain is proportional to its body size, then we can hypothesize that it may not have been as dumb as we thought, or at least as intelligent as other pigeons", affirmed Gold.

Gold will analyze more brain cases to confirm that the brain size and its shape is similar to the one that she studied.

Report in CNET pointed out that if you look up the word dodo, you will find entries like "dimwit", "fool", "dumdum" etc. This is not a good description of an extinct flightless bird.

"It's not impressively large or impressively small-it's exactly the size you would predict it to be for its body size," Gold said. "So if you take brain size as a proxy for intelligence, dodos probably had a similar intelligence level to pigeons."

A report published in the EurekAlert said, the researchers also found that dodo had a large olfactory bulb, part of brain that enhances the sense of smell, a unique trait for a bird.

"When the island was discovered in the late 1500s, the dodos living there had no fear of humans and they were herded onto boats and used as fresh meat for sailors," said Eugenia Gold, "Because of that behavior and invasive species that were introduced to the island, they disappeared in less than 100 years after humans arrived. Today, they are almost exclusively known for becoming extinct, and I think that's why we've given them this reputation of being dumb," says Tech Times