Niue Rail

The Niue Rail ( Gallirallus huiatua ) is a medium sized, extinct flightless Rail with 25 cm size. The Style epithet is derived from hui atua, a compound word from the language of Niue. " Hui " is the bone and " atua " means " the dead".

Build and flightlessness

It was developed by David William Steadman et al. described in 2000 on the basis of only four bones, a tarsometatarsus ( deformed metacarpals ), a part of Elle, the shaft of the femur and the distal end of the tibiotarsus ( a part of the foot skeleton ), so can be far little to be said about them. Your physique is similar to any of the known Gallirallus species more than the other. The dimensions of the bones suggest that the species was flightless.

Time of extinction

The bones of the Niue - Rail are from the period before the first human settlement by the Polynesians. Maybe hunting and habitat loss were the cause of the extinction of the Art