Bird That Was Once Thought To Be Extinct Surprisingly Comes Back Into Existence
The Aldabra Rail has a strange place in bird history, because it was once believed to be extinct and then turned up again in the Indian Ocean region. That kind of comeback is rare, and it has made the species a fresh point of interest for biologists and conservation watchers alike.
The bird was tied to Aldabra Atoll, where a major flood around 136,000 years ago is believed to have wiped it out. Now, new sightings and research are giving the Aldabra white-throated railbird a second chapter, and the mystery around how it returned is still unfolding.
Here is how this supposedly lost bird found its way back into the story.
The extinct Aldabra white-throated railbird
Around 100,000 years ago, the Aldabra white-throated railbird disappeared and was declared extinct due to rising sea levels. However, this flightless, presumably extinct bird has mysteriously reappeared, seemingly resurrected, and biologists are baffled.
According to research published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, this reincarnated bird is the result of a process known as 'iterative evolution.' This is the process by which old genes—in this case, the genes of an extinct bird—reappear at a later point in time.
Nature’s “not extinct” surprises also show up with the sengi, the tiny elephant shrew spotted alive after 50 years.
Reappears after being announced as extinct.
This means that while a bird's ancestors may have vanished from the face of the Earth, the bird's DNA still exists—and under the appropriate circumstances, there is nothing to prevent those genes from replicating in present times. This indicates that during the course of a species' existence, identical species can produce a large number of marginally developed offshoots.
But don't get your hopes up that dinosaurs and woolly mammoths will appear next. These scientific phenomena can only be found in animals that are nearly identical to their forebears.
While repeated evolution has previously been observed in species such as turtles, it has never been observed in birds.
Watch the video and enjoy a look at the so-called extinct bird.
"We are aware of no other case in the rails, or of birds in general, that exhibits this occurrence so well," paleobiologist David Martill said in a release. "Fossil evidence demonstrating the influence of shifting sea levels on extinction and recolonization events is only known on Aldabra, which has the earliest paleontological record of any oceanic island within the Indian Ocean region."
2020 has already proven to be an intriguing and perplexing year. It appears that we will now have to deal with re-materializing birds as well.
Around 136,000 years ago, the Aldabra Rail became extinct, and it has now reclaimed its home island.
Because of this unusual occurrence, organisms can repeatedly re-emerge despite previous incarnations becoming extinct. Share this interesting story about this species of bird that can magically pop back into existence after being announced as extinct.
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