Nautilus

What an Extinct Bird Re-Evolving Says About “Species”

How could the same species evolve more than once?Photograph by Janos Rautonen / Flickr

ou may have heard the news of what sounds like a resurrection story on the small island of Aldabra, off the coast of Madagascar. Around 136,000 years ago, the island was submerged in water and a layer of limestone captured the rails—a species of flightless bird—living there. The birds (and all other land species living on the island) went . Recently, though, that the bones of these fossilized rails are virtually indistinguishable from rails living on the island today. They are calling this an instance of—where the same species evolves , distinct times.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Nautilus

Nautilus3 min read
Humpback Whales Caught Humping
Two photographers in Maui, out on a boat, spotted a pair of humpback whales in January 2022. They cut the engine and drifted, as the whales approached their boat and began to circle, just 15 feet or so below the surface. Dipping their cameras a foot
Nautilus5 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
Scientists and Artists as Storytelling Teams
This article is part of series of Nautilus interviews with artists, you can read the rest here. Zoe Keller is an artist on a mission to capture the beauty of biodiversity before it’s too late. Working in both graphite and digital media, she meticulou
Nautilus7 min read
The Unseen Deep-Sea Legacy of Whaling
First come the sleeper sharks and the rattails and the hagfish, scruffily named scavengers of the sea, along with amphipods and crabs who pluck delicately at bits of flesh. Tiny worms, mollusks, and crustaceans arrive in their hordes of tens of thous

Related Books & Audiobooks