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| status = EX
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref>{{cite journal | author = BirdLife International | author-link = BirdLife International | title = ''Aphanapteryx bonasia'' | journal = [[IUCN Red List of Threatened Species]] | volume = 2012 | page = e.T22728884A39099824 | year = 2012 | doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012-1.RLTS.T22728884A39099824.en | doi-access = free }}</ref>
| image = Red Rail.jpg
| image_alt = painting of red rail
| image_caption = Painting of a possibly stuffed specimen
| extinct =
| genus = Aphanapteryx
|parent_authority=[[Georg von Frauenfeld|Frauenfeld]], 1868
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}}
The '''red rail''' ('''''Aphanapteryx bonasia''''') is an [[extinct]] species of
==Taxonomy==
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| year = 1848
| page = [https://archive.org/details/dodoitskindredor00stri/page/21 21]
| url = https://archive.org/details/dodoitskindredor00stri}}</ref><ref name="Hume2019"/> The Belgian scientist [[Edmond de Sélys Longchamps]] coined the [[scientific name]] ''Apterornis bonasia'' based on the old accounts mentioned by Strickland. He also included two other Mascarene birds, at the time only known from contemporary accounts, in the genus ''Apterornis'': the [[Réunion ibis]] (now ''Threskiornis solitarius''); and the [[Réunion swamphen]] (now ''Porphyrio caerulescens''). He thought them related to the [[dodo]] and [[Rodrigues solitaire]], due to their shared rudimentary wings, tail, and the disposition of their digits.<ref name="Longchamps">{{cite journal |last1=de Sélys Longchamps |first1=E.|oclc=84482084 |title=Résumé concernant les oiseaux brévipennes mentionnés dans l'ouvrage de M. Strickland sur le Dodo |journal=Revue Zoologique |date=1848 |volume=1848 |pages=292–295 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/19656#page/304/mode/1up|language=fr}}</ref><ref name="OlsonB"/><ref name="Hume2019"/>
[[File:Aphanapteryx.jpg|thumb|left|upright|First known
The name ''Apterornis'' had already been used for a different extinct bird genus from [[New Zealand]] (originally spelled ''[[Aptornis]]'', the adzebills) by the British biologist [[Richard Owen]] earlier in 1848. The meaning of ''bonasia'' is unclear. Some early accounts refer to red rails by the vernacular names for the [[hazel grouse]], ''Tetrastes bonasia'', so the name evidently originates there. The name itself perhaps refers to ''bonasus'', meaning "bull" in Latin, or ''bonum'' and ''assum'', meaning "good roast". It has also been suggested to be a Latin form of the French word ''bonasse'', meaning simple-minded or good-natured.<ref name="OlsonB"/> It is also possible that the name alludes to bulls due the bird being said to have had a similar attraction to the waving of red cloth.<ref name="Hume2019"/>
The German ornithologist [[Hermann Schlegel]] thought van den Broecke's sketch depicted a smaller dodo species from Mauritius, and that the Herbert sketch showed a dodo from Rodrigues, and named them ''Didus broecki'' and ''Didus herberti'' in 1854.<ref>{{Citation | last = Schlegel | first = H. | title = Ook een Woordje over den Dodo (''Didus ineptus'') en zijne Verwanten | journal = Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen | volume = 2 | pages = 232–256 | language = nl | year = 1854 | url =https://archive.org/stream/verslagenenmeded02koni#page/232/mode/2up
In 1865, [[subfossil]] foot bones and a lower jaw were found along with remains of other Mauritian animals in the [[Mare aux Songes]] swamp, and were sent by the British ornithologists [[Edward Newton]] to the French zoologist [[Alphonse Milne-Edwards]], who identified them as belonging to a [[rallidae|rail]] in 1868. Milne-Edwards correlated the bones with the bird in the Hoefnagel painting and the old accounts, and combined the [[genus]] name ''Aphanapteryx'' with the older specific name ''broecki''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milne-Edwards|first1=A.|title=Recherches sur la faune ornithologique éteinte des iles Mascareignes et de Madagascar|date=1868|publisher=G. Masson|location=Paris|language = fr|pages=61–83|url=https://archive.org/stream/recherchessurlaf01miln#page/60/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name="Milne-Edwards"/><ref name="Hume2019"/> Due to [[nomenclatural priority]], the genus name was later combined with the oldest species name ''bonasia''.<ref>{{Citation
| last = de Sélys Longchamps
| first = E.
| title = Résumé concernant les oiseaux brévipennes mentionnés dans l'ouvrage de M. Strickland sur le Dodo
| journal = Revue Zoologique
| volume = 11
| pages = 292–295
| language = fr
| year = 1848 }}</ref><ref name="OlsonB"/> In the 1860s, the travel journal of the [[Dutch East India Company]] ship ''Gelderland'' (1601–1603) was rediscovered, which contains good sketches of several now-extinct Mauritian birds attributed to the Dutch artist Joris Laerle, including an unlabelled red rail.<ref name="Gelderland"/>
===Evolution===
[[File:Aphanapteryx broeckei.jpg|thumb|
Apart from being a close relative of the [[Rodrigues rail]], the relationships of the red rail are uncertain. The two are commonly kept as separate genera, ''Aphanapteryx'' and ''Erythromachus'', but have also been united as species of ''Aphanapteryx'' at times.<ref name="Lost Land">{{cite book
| last1 = Cheke | first1 = A. S.
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| location = London
|publisher=T. & A. D. Poyser
|isbn=978-0-7136-6544-4}}</ref> They were first generically synonymised by
| doi-access = free}}</ref> In 1892, the Scottish naturalist [[Henry Ogg Forbes]] described [[Hawkins's rail]], an extinct species of rail from the [[Chatham Islands]] located east of New Zealand, as a new species of ''Aphanapteryx''; ''A. hawkinsi''. He found the Chatham Islands species more similar to the red rail than the latter was to the Rodrigues rail, and proposed that the Mascarene Islands had once been connected with the Chatham Islands, as part of a [[lost continent]] he called "Antipodea". Forbes moved the Chatham Islands bird to its own genus, ''Diaphorapteryx'', in 1893, on the recommendation of Newton, but later reverted to his older name. The idea that the Chatham Islands bird was closely related to the red rail and the idea of a connection between the Mascarenes and the Chatham Islands were later criticised by the British palaeontologist [[Charles William Andrews]] due to no other species being shared between the islands, and
In 1945, the French palaeontologist [[Jean Piveteau]] found skull features of the red and Rodrigues rail different enough for generic separation, and in 1977, Olson stated that though the two species were similar and derived from the same stock, they had also diverged considerably, and should possibly be kept separate. Based on geographic location and the morphology of the [[nasal bones]], Olson suggested that they were related to the genera ''[[Gallirallus]]'', ''[[Dryolimnas]]'', ''[[Atlantisia]]'', and ''[[Rallus]]''.<ref name="OlsonB">{{cite book | last = Olson | first = S. | chapter = A synopsis on the fossil Rallidae | title = Rails of the World – A Monograph of the Family Rallidae | editor = Ripley, S. D. | publisher = Codline | location = Boston | year = 1977 | pages = 357–363 | isbn = 978-0-87474-804-8}}</ref> The American ornithologist [[Bradley C. Livezey]] was unable to determine the affinities of the red and Rodrigues rail in 1998, stating that some of the features uniting them and some other rails were associated with the [[loss of flight]] rather than common descent. He also suggested that the grouping of the red and Rodrigues rail into the same genus may have been influenced by their geographical distribution.<ref name="Livezey1998">{{cite journal |last1=Livezey |first1=B. C. |title=A phylogenetic analysis of the Gruiformes (Aves) based on morphological characters, with an emphasis on the rails (Rallidae) |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |date=1998 |volume=353 |issue=1378 |pages=2077–2151 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1998.0353|pmc=1692427 }}</ref> The French palaeontologist Cécile Mourer-Chauviré and colleagues also considered the two as belonging to separate genera in 1999.<ref name="Avifauna">{{Cite journal | last1 = Mourer-Chauvire | first1 = C. | last2 = Bour | first2 = R. | last3 = Ribes | first3 = S. | last4 = Moutou | first4 = F. | title = Avian paleontology at the close of the 20th century: The avifauna of Réunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans | journal = Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology | volume = 89 | pages = 23 | year = 1999 | hdl = 10088/2005 }}</ref>
Rails have reached many oceanic [[archipelagos]], which has frequently led to [[speciation]] and evolution of [[flightlessness]]. According to the British researchers Anthony S. Cheke and [[Julian P. Hume]] in 2008, the fact that the red rail lost much of its feather structure indicates it was isolated for a long time. These rails may be of Asian origin, like many other Mascarene birds.<ref name="Lost Land"/> In 2019, Hume supported the distinction of the two genera, and cited the relation between the extinct [[Mauritius scops owl]] and the [[Rodrigues scops owl]] as another example of the diverging evolutionary paths on these islands. He stated that the relationships of the red and Rodrigues rails was more unclear than that of other extinct Mascarene rails, with many of their distinct features being related to flightlessness and modifications to their jaws due to their diet, suggesting long time isolation. He suggested their ancestors could have arrived on the Mascarenes during the middle [[Miocene]] at the earliest, but it may have happened more recently. The speed of which these features evolved may also have been affected by gene flow, resource availability, and climate events, and flightlessness can evolve rapidly in rails, as well as repeatedly within the same groups, as seen in for example ''Dryolimnas'', so the distinctness of the red and Rodrigues rails may not have taken long to evolve (some other specialised rails evolved in less than 1–3 million years). Hume suggested that the two rails were probably related to ''Dryolimnas'', but their considerably different morphology made it difficult to establish how. In general, rails are adept at colonising islands, and can become flightless within few generations in suitable environments, for example without predators, yet this also makes them vulnerable to human activities.<ref name="Hume2019">{{cite journal |last1=Hume |first1=J. P. |title=Systematics, morphology and ecology of rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with one new species |journal=Zootaxa |date=2019 |volume=4626 |issue=1 |pages=9–37, 63–67 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4626.1.1|pmid=31712544 |s2cid=198258434 }}</ref>
==Description==
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Mundy visited Mauritius in 1638 and described the red rail as follows:
{{Quotation|A Mauritius henne, a Fowle as bigge as our English hennes, of a yellowish Wheaten Colour, of which we only got one. It hath a long, Crooked sharpe pointed bill. Feathered all over, butte on their wings they are soe Few and smalle that they cannot with them raise themselves From the ground. There is a pretty way of taking them with a red cap, but this of ours was taken with a stick. They bee very good Meat, and are also Cloven footed, soe that they can Neyther Fly nor Swymme.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Sclater | first1 = W. l.| title = The "Mauritius Hen" of Peter Mundy | doi = 10.1111/j.1474-919X.1915.tb08192.x | journal = Ibis | volume = 57 | issue = 2 | pages = 316–319 | year = 1915| url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/378278}}</ref>}}
Another English traveller, John Marshall, described the bird as follows in 1668:
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| page = 185
| isbn = 978-99949-22-05-5 }}</ref>
[[File:Tropidophora carinata Reunion.jpg|thumb|left|Shells of the extinct land-snail ''[[Tropidophora carinata]]''
Hume noted that the front of the red rail's jaws were pitted with numerous foramina, running from the nasal aperture to almost the tip of the premaxilla. These were mostly oval, varying in depth and inclination, and became shallower hindward from the tip. Similar foramina can be seen in probing birds, such as kiwis, ibises, and [[sandpipers]]. While unrelated, these three bird groups share a foraging strategy; they probe for live food beneath substrate, and have elongated bills with clusters of [[mechanoreceptors]] concentrated at the tip. Their bill-tips allow them to detect buried prey by sensing cues from the substrate. The foramina on the bill of the red rail were comparable to those in other probing rails with long bills (such as the extinct [[snipe-rail]]), though not as concentrated on the tip, and the front end of the bill's curvature also began at the front of the nasal opening (as well as the same point in the mandible). The bill's tip was thereby both strong and very sensitive, and a useful tool for probing for invertebrates.<ref name="Hume2019"/>
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While it was swift and could escape when chased, it was easily lured by waving a red cloth, which they approached to attack; a similar behaviour was noted in its relative, the Rodrigues rail. The birds could then be picked up, and their cries when held would draw more individuals to the scene, as the birds, which had evolved in the absence of mammalian [[predator]]s, were curious and not afraid of humans.<ref name="Fuller Extinct"/> Herbert described its behaviour towards red cloth in 1634:
{{Quotation|The hens in eating taste like parched pigs, if you see a flocke of twelve or twenties, shew them a red cloth, and with their utmost silly fury they will altogether flie upon it, and if you strike downe one, the rest are as good as caught, not budging an iot till they be all destroyed.<ref name="Lost Land"/>}}
Many other endemic species of Mauritius became extinct after the arrival of
| doi-access = free}}</ref> The surviving endemic [[fauna]] is still seriously threatened.<ref>{{cite journal| doi = 10.1017/S0030605300012643| last = Temple | first = S. A.| year = 1974| title = Wildlife in Mauritius today| journal = Oryx| volume = 12| issue = 5| pages = 584–590 | doi-access = free}}</ref> The red rail lived alongside other recently extinct Mauritian birds such as the dodo, the [[broad-billed parrot]], the [[Mascarene grey parakeet]], the [[Mauritius blue pigeon]], the Mauritius scops owl, the [[Mascarene coot]], the [[Mauritian shelduck]], the [[Mauritian duck]], and the [[Mauritius night heron]]. Extinct Mauritian reptiles include the [[saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise]], the [[domed Mauritius giant tortoise]], the [[Mauritian giant skink]], and the [[Round Island burrowing boa]]. The [[small Mauritian flying fox]] and the snail ''Tropidophora carinata'' lived on Mauritius and Réunion, but became extinct in both islands. Some plants, such as ''[[Casearia tinifolia]]'' and the [[palm orchid]], have also become extinct.<ref name="Lost Land"/>
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===Extinction===
[[File:Aphanapteryx bonasia by Mundy.jpg|thumb|alt=drawing of red rail|Drawing by [[Peter Mundy]], 1638]]
Many terrestrial rails are flightless, and island populations are particularly vulnerable to
Since the red rail was referred to by the names of the dodo in the late 1600s, it is uncertain which is the latest account of the latter.<ref name="Hume2019"/> When the French traveller [[François Leguat]], who had become familiar with the Rodrigues rail in the preceding years, arrived on Mauritius in 1693, he remarked that the red rail had become rare. He was the last source to mention the bird, so it is assumed that it became extinct around 1700.<ref name="Fuller Extinct"/><ref name="Leguat">{{cite book
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| year = 1891
| page = [https://archive.org/details/voyageoffranoi01legu/page/71 71]
| url = https://archive.org/details/voyageoffranoi01legu }}</ref> [[Feral cats]], which are effective predators of ground-inhabiting birds, were established on Mauritius around the late 1680s (to control rats), and this has been cause for rapid disappearance of rails elsewhere, for example on [[Aldabra Atoll]]. Being inquisitive and fearless, Hume suggested the red rail would have been easy prey for cats, and was thereby driven to extinction.<ref name="Pretorius"/><ref name="Hume2019"/>
==See also==
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{{Birds|state=collapsed}}
{{Gruiformes|R.|state=collapsed}}
{{Portal bar|Birds|Animals|Biology|Africa|Madagascar|Paleontology}}
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