Historically, the dodo was assigned the genus Didus, now a junior synonym of Raphus.
In 1848, a new species within the now defunct genus Didus, D. nazarenus, was named by Hugh Edwin Strickland and Alexander Gordon Melville.
To house their new species, as well as the other species known at the time, Strickland and Melville named the subfamily Didinae.
In 1893 three species were assigned to the group Pezophaps solitarius, Didus ineptus, and the possible species Didus borbonicus.
Today, only two raphine species are known, with Didus ineptus becoming a junior subjective synonym of Raphus cucullatus; Didus?
borbonicus now classified as the ibis Threskiornis solitarius; and Didus nazarenus being identified as synonymous with Pezophaps solitarius.

A suborder named in 1893 by Sharpe, Didi was defined as a group including only the massive birds, that were sister to Columbidae, from the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues.
Features grouping Didi with Columbidae were the angle of the mandible and the hook at the end of the beak.

In 1811, Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger created a new family for the genus Didus.
He named the family Inepti, and in it included only Didus ineptus, now a synonym of Raphus cucullatus.
Illiger concluded that the dodo was related to ostriches and rheas, and so placed Inepti in the order Rasores, as the sister family to Gallinacei, Epollicati (a defunct group including Turnix and Syrrhaptes), Columbini , and Crypturi.

In 1842, Johannes Theodor Reinhardt proposed they were ground doves, based on studies of a dodo skull he had rediscovered in the royal Danish collection of Copenhagen.
This view was met with ridicule, but later supported by Strickland and Melville, who suggested the common descent of the Rodrigues solitaire and the dodo in 1848, after dissecting the only known dodo specimen with soft tissue and comparing it with the few solitaire remains then available.
Strickland stated that although not identical, these birds shared many distinguishing features in the leg bones, features which were otherwise known only in pigeons.

The raphines are sometimes separated as a distinct family Raphidae, and their affinities were for long uncertain.
They were initially placed in the ratites due to their peculiar, flightlessness-related apomorphies, and a relationship to the Rallidae has also been suggested.
Osteological and molecular data, however, agrees that placement in the Columbidae is more appropriate.
Many different affinities have historically been suggested for the dodo, including that it was a small ostrich, a rail, an albatross, or a vulture.
Historically, the dodo was assigned the genus Didus, now a junior synonym of Raphus. In 1848, a new species within the now defunct genus Didus, D. nazarenus, was named by Hugh Edwin Strickland and Alexander Gordon Melville. To house their new species, as well as the other species known at the time, Strickland and Melville named the subfamily Didinae. In 1893 three species were assigned to the group Pezophaps solitarius, Didus ineptus, and the possible species Didus borbonicus. Today, only two raphine species are known, with Didus ineptus becoming a junior subjective synonym of Raphus cucullatus; Didus? borbonicus now classified as the ibis Threskiornis solitarius; and Didus nazarenus being identified as synonymous with Pezophaps solitarius.
A suborder named in 1893 by Sharpe, Didi was defined as a group including only the massive birds, that were sister to Columbidae, from the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues. Features grouping Didi with Columbidae were the angle of the mandible and the hook at the end of the beak.
In 1811, Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger created a new family for the genus Didus. He named the family Inepti, and in it included only Didus ineptus, now a synonym of Raphus cucullatus. Illiger concluded that the dodo was related to ostriches and rheas, and so placed Inepti in the order Rasores, as the sister family to Gallinacei, Epollicati (a defunct group including Turnix and Syrrhaptes), Columbini , and Crypturi.
In 1842, Johannes Theodor Reinhardt proposed they were ground doves, based on studies of a dodo skull he had rediscovered in the royal Danish collection of Copenhagen. This view was met with ridicule, but later supported by Strickland and Melville, who suggested the common descent of the Rodrigues solitaire and the dodo in 1848, after dissecting the only known dodo specimen with soft tissue and comparing it with the few solitaire remains then available. Strickland stated that although not identical, these birds shared many distinguishing features in the leg bones, features which were otherwise known only in pigeons.
The raphines are sometimes separated as a distinct family Raphidae, and their affinities were for long uncertain. They were initially placed in the ratites due to their peculiar, flightlessness-related apomorphies, and a relationship to the Rallidae has also been suggested. Osteological and molecular data, however, agrees that placement in the Columbidae is more appropriate. Many different affinities have historically been suggested for the dodo, including that it was a small ostrich, a rail, an albatross, or a vulture.
Raphinae