For five centuries, the dodo has served as a symbol of nature's folly — a creature whose extinction seemed to confirm its own inadequacy. But new research drawing on CT scans of preserved skulls suggests the bird was neither dim nor careless, but rather exquisitely adapted to a world without danger, one that vanished the moment European ships arrived. The dodo's tragedy was not stupidity but trust — a quality that, in the wrong circumstances, can look indistinguishable from it.