1. One of the greatest insults a person can be called is that of being a "Dodo bird." Its meaning being that the person is rather .......... and lacks common sense.

2. Scientific research has disclosed some surprising evidence about this fowl. Supposedly, it was too flabby and .......... to fly away when threatened.

3. But 400 years after the dodo wandered into .........., scientists are reassessing the possibility that it was not a strange useless bird.

4. Rather than being the object of ridicule, the dodo was simply a product of its island environment. Its large size meant it was possible for it to go without food for long periods of time; flight was unnecessary as it was not in danger from .......... and did not need large wings.

5. Although sailors arrived on the island in the 16th century and tried roasting the dodos, they found the meat .......... . It was a fallacy that the birds were eaten into extinction.

6. When foreign animals were released on the islands, they robbed the nests of dodo eggs. In actuality, it was this event that was responsible for the .......... of the bird.

7. A curator of birds at the National Museum of Scotland was able to use DNA from a dodo skull which resulted in his classifying the dodo in the same .......... pool as the pigeon.

8. Using records dated 1662, which were written by a shipwrecked sailor, a reconstructed skeleton model was built. This account was coupled with paintings of captive dodos done in the same .......... .

9. It was well known that rich collectors would have arranged to buy live dodos to place in their private zoo or .......... in the early 17th century. Because the birds were overfed in captivity, they were wrongly perceived to naturally weigh 50 pounds or more.

10. After measuring and weighing hundreds of dodo bones, a Dutch .......... concluded that the bird would have been a fast sprinter with a large but slim and muscular body.