In 1865, a British railway engineer working in south-east Mauritius noticed bones that had been disturbed by workers digging peat.

[1] He showed his findings to the government schoolmaster at Mahébourg, George Clark, who subsequently uncovered an abundance of subfossil dodo bones in the swamp.

The Dodo bones were imbedded only in the mud at the bottom of the water in the deepest part of the marsh... Encouraged by success, I employed several hands to search in the manner described, but I met with but few specimens of dodo bones till I thought of cutting away a mass of floating herbage nearly two feet in thickness, which covered the deepest part of the marsh.

[6] In October 2005, after a hundred years of neglect, a part of the Mare aux Songes swamp was excavated by an international team of researchers.

[8] Subsequent excavations suggested that dodos, along with other animals, became mired in the Mare aux Songes while trying to reach water during a long period of severe drought about 4,200 years ago.