Snipe-rail

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]

Snipe-rail Temporal range: Late Holocene
Holotype from Auckland Museum.
Conservation status
Extinct (13th century) (NZ TCS)[1]
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

The bone findings were in the western areas of the North Island,^[4] where wetter, closed-canopy rainforests prevailed.^[4] The bird's long bill suggests that it was able to forage by probing in a similar manner to kiwi.^[4]

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]