AKIPRESS.COM - A near-complete skeleton of a dodo has been sold at auction for £280,000, BBCreported.

The bones of the extinct, flightless bird were sold at Summers Place Auctions, in Billingshurst, West Sussex, to a private collector.

The remains were compiled by a dodo enthusiast over four decades until he had enough bones to create a 95% complete skeleton.

Humans are thought to have driven the bird to extinction in the 17th Century so rapidly that few traces remain.

The auction house said the total paid would be £346,300, ($430,662) which included its fee.

It said there were only 12 similarly complete skeletons in existence and all were held by museums.