The red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), now extinct, was a flightless rail, found only on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. A little larger than a chicken, it had reddish, hairlike plumage, dark legs, and a long, curved beak. The wings were small; rail species often became flightless when adapting to isolated islands, free of mammalian predators. It is believed to have fed on invertebrates, and snail shells have been found with damage matching an attack by its beak. Until subfossil remains were described in 1869, scientists only knew the red rail from 17th-century descriptions and illustrations, incorrectly thought to represent several species. It has been suggested that all late 17th-century accounts of the dodo actually referred to the red rail, after the former had become extinct. The last mention of a red rail sighting is from 1693. The species is thought to have been hunted to extinction around 1700 by introduced species and also by humans, who took advantage of red rails' attraction to red coloured cloth to lure them and beat them with sticks. (Full article...)
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