Tag

Aldabra Rail

All articles tagged with #aldabra rail

evolutionary-biology1 year ago

"Resurrected: The Bird that Evolved Twice"

The flightless Aldabra rail, a species that went extinct over 130,000 years ago, reappeared through iterative evolution after the atoll it inhabited resurfaced. This process involved the white-throated rail recolonizing the atoll and evolving to become flightless once again, making it the only living flightless bird in the Indian Ocean. This remarkable case of iterative evolution demonstrates the species' ability to evolve twice, essentially rising from the dead and regaining its flightless traits.