The snipe-rail (''Capellirallus karamu'') is an extinct flightless rail endemic to the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

of New Zealand. The species' name is derived from the Karamu CaveRipley, S. D. (1977): Rails of the World - A Monograph of the Family Rallidae. Boston. from

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

where the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was discovered in 1954.

Description

The snipe-rail was a relatively small railTennyson, A. & Martinson, P. (2006): Extinct Birds of New Zealand; Te Papa Press, Wellington, New Zealand. which had a bill of about 7 cm, very long in proportion to its body size. Its weight was about 240 g. The type material consists of an incomplete

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

, including

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

e, a

pelvis The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an Anatomy, anatomical Trunk (anatomy), trunk, between the human abdomen, abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also c ...

, and a hind limb. Since the discovery of these remains, many complete skeletons consisting of hundreds of bones have been unearthed on different sites in the North Island. Its evolutionary relationships to other rail species are unclear but the structure of its bones suggests that it might have been a relative of the likewise extinct Chatham rail. Relative to its body size, the snipe-rail had the smallest wings of all known rail species. It also had a disproportionately large

tarsometatarsus The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bird bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) a ...

Habitat and ecology

The bone findings were in the western areas of the North Island, where wetter, closed- canopy

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

s prevailed. The bird's long bill suggests that it was able to forage by probing in a similar manner to kiwi.

Extinction

The exact date of the snipe-rail's extinction is unknown, but it is supposed that the decline began in the 13th century, when the Kiori/

Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), or , is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. Contrary to its vernacular name, the Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asi ...

became widespread in New Zealand.Janet M. Wilmshurst, Atholl J. Anderson, Thomas F. G. Higham, and Trevor H. Worthy (2008). ''Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat'' In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, pp. 7676-7680.

References

External links

Illustration of a snipe-rail
{{Taxonbar, from=Q339038 Rallidae Birds of the North Island Extinct birds of New Zealand Holocene extinctions Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Birds described in 1954 Taxa named by Robert Falla

Description

Habitat and ecology

Extinction

References

Further reading

External links