Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. There’s an important concept in evolutionary biology called ...

A previously extinct species of bird has re-evolved back into existence, according to a new study. The Aldabra rail first went extinct around 136,000 years ago. Now, it's reclaimed its home island.

A species of flightless bird went extinct over 130,000 years ago but then appeared again after evolution gave it a second chance. The birds evolved independently, thousands of years apart, but did so ...

A bird that had previously gone extinct came back to life thanks to a rare evolutionary process known as "iterative evolution." The white-throated rail bird can presently be found on the island of ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 112, No. 16 (April 21, 2015), pp. 4897-4902 (6 pages) A long-standing hypothesis in adaptive radiation theory is ...