Five centuries before Charles Darwin arrived at the Azores islands in the North Atlantic Ocean in the 1800s, five now-extinct species of birds called them and nearby Madeira home. Now, a team of researchers has shed new light on these little-known creatures in a new study.
Writing in a recent edition of the journal Zootaxa, Josep Antoni Alcover, a Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) scientist working at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA-CSIC/UIB), and his colleagues explained that these never-before-seen creatures had lost the ability to fly because of manmade changes to their island habitats.
By the time Darwin made it to the Azores, all of the species had died out, leaving behind only familiar birds such as starlings, wagtails, finches, and blackbirds. However, Alcover’s team has discovered remains of the five rail species on the islands, using their discovery to identify two new types of birds that lived in Madeira and three others that called the Azores home.
“The species of birds very probably disappeared following the arrival of humans and the animals that came with them, like mice, rats and cats,” he explained in a statement, adding that their work has made it possible to “discover new species of birds that very probably disappeared following the arrival of humans and the animals that came with them, like mice, rats and cats.”
Birds were smaller, worse fliers than modern-day rails
Among the new species Alcover and his colleagues discovered are the Rallus lowei or Madeira rail, a flightless bird that had a stout body; the Rallus adolfocaesaris or Porto Santo rail, which the researchers described as a graceful bird; and the Rallus carvaoensis or São Miguel rail, a tiny flightless bird that had a slightly curved beak.
In addition, they reported the discovery of the Pico rail (Rallus montivagorum), a bird that would have been larger than the São Miguel rail but tinier than the continental types of the species, and the São Jorge rail (Rallus ‘minutus’), said to be a diminutive, relatively plump bird that had short legs, was flightless and has not yet been given an official scientific name.
Alcover and his colleagues dated the bones of these birds, as well as remains from other species found alongside them that were related to them, and found that at least one of the birds survived until the 15th century, indicating that they had become extinct relatively recently. The scientists believe that their extinction may be linked to a possible visit or colonization by Vikings.
“The bone remains of native bird species which are now appearing show that if Darwin had been able to study the fossils hidden on these islands, or if he had visited 500 years earlier, he would have found a much more singular ornithofauna, with many indigenous bird species, like that which was found on the Galápagos islands,” said Alcover.
Currently, there are only 13 surviving rail species, and the extinct species were considerably smaller than those modern-day members of the genus, the researchers said. Furthermore, the fossils they discovered allowed them to confirm that all five of the species were at least limited in their flying capabilities, and at least some of them could not take to the air at all.
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Feature Image: The five new species discovered in Madeira and Azores. From left to right: R. carvaoensis, R. adolfocaesaris, R. montivagorum, R. lowei, R. “minutus”. (Credit: José Antonio Peñas (Sinc))
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