Snipe-rail
Extinct species of bird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The snipe-rail (Capellirallus karamu) is an extinct flightless rail endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. The species' name is derived from the Karamu Cave[3] 21 kilometres (13 mi) from Hamilton[3] where the holotype was discovered in 1954.[3]
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| Snipe-rail Temporal range: Late Holocene | |
|---|---|
| |
| Holotype from Auckland Museum. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | Rallidae |
| Genus: | †Capellirallus Falla, 1954 |
| Species: | †C. karamu |
| Binomial name | |
| †Capellirallus karamu Falla, 1954[2] | |
Description
The snipe-rail was a relatively small rail[4] which had a bill of about 7 cm, very long in proportion to its body size.[4] Its weight was about 240 g.[4] The type material consists of an incomplete skeleton, including vertebrae, a pelvis, and a hind limb.[3] Since the discovery of these remains, many complete skeletons[3] consisting of hundreds of bones[4] have been unearthed on different sites in the North Island.[4] Its evolutionary relationships to other rail species are unclear [4] but the structure of its bones suggests that it might have been a relative of the likewise extinct Chatham rail.[3][4] Relative to its body size, the snipe-rail had the smallest wings of all known rail species.[3][4] It also had a disproportionately large tarsometatarsus.[4]
Habitat and ecology
Extinction
The exact date of the snipe-rail's extinction is unknown, but it is supposed that the decline began in the 13th century,[4] when the Kiori/Polynesian rat became widespread in New Zealand.[4][5]
