Evolution revives extinct bird

Scientists have discovered that a flightless bird living on a group of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean is the same species as one that was previously wiped out by a flood 136,000 years ago. The Aldabra rail – named after the islands where it lives – is related to the white-throated rail, which lives around 300 miles away on Madagascar, a large island off the coast of south-eastern Africa. These white-throated rails first arrived on Aldabra hundreds of thousands of years ago. With no predators, the rails lost the need to fly, and evolved into the Aldabra rail. Yet, according to researchers from the University of Portsmouth and London’s Natural History Museum, they were later wiped out by a devastating flood. Around 36,000 years ago, the story repeated…

You're reading a preview of

The Week Junior (Digital) - 1 Issue, 180

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.