The Ibiza rail (''Rallus eivissensis'') is a recently discovered fossil species of

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

, described from a Late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

cave deposit at Es Pouàs, on the island of Ibiza. Ibiza is in the Pityuses group of the

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Balearic Islands in the

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. The Ibiza rail was a relative of the extant

water rail The water rail (''Rallus aquaticus'') is a bird of the Rallidae, rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are bird migration, migratory, but this species is a perma ...

(''Rallus aquaticus'') and may be derived from it, but was a bit smaller and stouter, had shorter and more robust hind limbs and shorter wings, with probably reduced its flight capability. Consequently, it might have also occurred on neighbouring Formentera, where no possible locations have been surveyed. The

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

of this species was more recent than 16,700 years BC, probably roughly between 5,300 and 4,350 years BC. The latter dates broadly overlap a period of the possible arrival of humans at Ibiza, suggesting a relationship between the two events. The Ibiza rail is somewhat unusual insofar as that most extinct insular rails were completely flightless, whereas the Ibiza rail could still fly if it had to. However, it agrees in this respect with many species of rail still found on other

continental island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s worldwide, whereas most other forms were on oceanic islands. Nonetheless, as there were no terrestrial

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s on Ibiza before the arrival of humans, it is probable that this species would ultimately have evolved to complete flightlessness and probably rather small size, which is a trend that seems to hold true for all species of rail which evolved on small islands without terrestrial predators. The

paleoecology Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...

of the Pityuses group is peculiar because there were almost no mammals present and thus the

trophic web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one o ...

in prehistoric times was more similar to the

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an island of Moloka‘i than to Mallorca in the Baleares (Seguí & Alcover, 1999). While the islands may have provided more freshwater habitat due to better tree cover in the past, the Ibiza rail's habitat was probably

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

swamps in the coastal lowland. Extinction was most probably due to overhunting by the expanding human population. Most other extinct island rails which were unable to escape hunters due to flightlessness, but this species is more likely to have fallen victim to its small population size: Ibiza is not large, and available habitat was densely populated by various species of birds, which would leave little resources for a large population of any particular species. Thus, the Ibiza rail was likely to succumb to an amount of hunting which could have been tolerated by a larger population of island rails, flightless or not.

References

* Alcover, Josep Antoni (2001): Nous avenços en el coneixement dels ocells fòssils de les Balears. ''Anuari Ornitològic de les Balears'' 16: 3-13.

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*_McMinn,_M.,_Palmer,_M._&_Alcover,_Josep_Antoni_(2005):_A_new_species_of_rail_(Aves:_Rallidae)_from_the_Upper_Pleistocene_and_Holocene_of_Ibiza_(Pityusic_Islands,_western_Mediterranean)._'' PDF_fulltext
*_McMinn,_M.,_Palmer,_M._&_Alcover,_Josep_Antoni_(2005):_A_new_species_of_rail_(Aves:_Rallidae)_from_the_Upper_Pleistocene_and_Holocene_of_Ibiza_(Pityusic_Islands,_western_Mediterranean)._''Ibis_(journal)">Ibis_ The_ibises_()_(collective_plural_ibis;_classical_plurals_ibides_and_ibes)_are_a_group_of_long-legged_wading_birds_in_the_family__Threskiornithidae,_that_inhabit_wetlands,_forests_and_plains._"Ibis"_derives_from_the_Latin_and_Ancient_Greek_word__...

''_147(4):_706–716.__(HTML_abstract) *_Seguí,_B._&_Alcover,_Josep_Antoni_(1999):_Comparison_of_Paleontological_Patterns_in_Insular_Bird_Faunas:_A_Case_Study_from_the_Western_Mediterranean_and_Hawaii._''Smithsonian_Contributions_to_Paleobiology''_89:_67–73
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* McMinn, M., Palmer, M. & Alcover, Josep Antoni (2005): A new species of rail (Aves: Rallidae) from the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene of Ibiza (Pityusic Islands, western Mediterranean). ''Ibis (journal)">Ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word ...

See also

References