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

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

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: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

where the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

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 an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

, including

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

e, a

pelvis The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton). The ...

, 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. The snipe-rail has a specific position among New Zealand rail species. 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 The Chatham rail (''Cabalus modestus'') is an extinct flightless species of bird in the family Rallidae. It was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, in the Chatham archipelago of New Zealand. The Chatham rail and the Dieffenbach's ...

. 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 bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and meta ...

Habitat and ecology

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

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

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

kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also refe ...

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''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, a ...

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