Dodo was actually smart – but trust in humans led to its downfall

An employee at Christie's auction house holds a rare fragment from a dodo's femur bone - (Getty)

The now-extinct dodo was actually quite smart but gained a reputation as an unintelligent bird because it trusted humans, according to new research.

Scans of dodo skulls held in museum collections revealed the part of its brain governing cognition was exactly the size expected for a bird of its bulk, according to a study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.