New research has found that it had once gone extinct, but rose from the dead thanks to a rare process called “iterative evolution”.

• Iterative evolution means the repeated evolution of similar or parallel structures from the same ancestor but at different times.
• It is the only flightless bird known in the Indian Ocean area. It is a chicken-sized bird, indigenous to Madagascar. Migrating to Aldabra, the rails evolved so that they lost the ability to fly.