WEST SUSSEX, U.K. — Summers Place Auctions, a specialist in natural history auctions, announces the sale of a 95 percent complete composite skeleton of a Dodo — the first to come up for sale since the early Twentieth Century — attained $430,953, including the buyer’s premium, November 22. The price was converted from British pounds to US dollars. Going to a private collector on the phone, the Dodo was a headline lot in the auctioneers’ fourth Evolution sale.

The Dodo bones had been collected by a Dodo enthusiast for 40 years until he realized he had enough bones to create an almost complete skeleton of this extinct bird. There are only about 12 similarly complete skeletons in existence and they are all in museums around the world.

For more information, www.summersplaceauctions.com or +44 (0)1403 331331.