Just like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, a rare species of flightless bird had came back from the dead – well extinction! 

The Aldabra rail is a flightless subspecies of the White Throated Rail, a small bird indigenous to the countries of Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte. Like their name suggests, the Aldabra rail species inhabited the small atoll (ring shaped island) of Aldabra. Unlike the White Throated Rail, the Aldabra rail species had no natural predators while on the island. Because of this, they had no need to develop wings. 136,000 years ago, a flood wiped most of the living species on the island, including the Aldabra Rail.  Recently, scientists have found fossils of the same bird from 118,000 years ago, not 136,000 years ago. This means that these birds became extinct, and only 20,000 years later inhabited the island once again. How is this possible? This rare case of evolution is called “iterative evolution.” Lead researcher, Dr Julian Hume, said that “These unique fossils provide irrefutable evidence that a member of the rail family colonized the atoll, most likely from Madagascar, and became flightless independently on each occasion.” These White Throated Rail birds were able to re-evolve into the same flightless subspecies in only 20,000 years! Scientists think that this only happened because the island has the perfect characteristics for these birds to lose their wings: lack of predators and a mild climate. In fact, the Aldabra Rails still inhabit the same island to this day.  Scientists are fascinated by this discovery, because iterative evolution has never been seen in birds. On a broader note, scientists note that if descendents of an extinct species have the right habitat, they could possibly re-evolve into their ancient counterparts. Who knows, with the right climate, maybe dinosaurs will re-roam the Earth one day! 

I’m Izzykat and remember to Bikpenguin !