Rallus adolfocaesaris Alcover et al., 2015
Porto Santo rail
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct (Fernández-Palacios et al., 2025)
Last record: "Late Pleistocene to late Holocene" (Fernández-Palacios et al., 2025)
Distribution & Habitat
Porto Santo (Island), Madeira (archipelago), North Atlantic Ocean
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Alcover, Josep Antoni, Pieper, Harald, Pereira, Fernando and Rando, Juan C. (2015). Five new extinct species of rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) from the Macaronesian Islands (North Atlantic Ocean). Zootaxa 4057 (2): 151-200.
Other references:
Fernández-Palacios, José María, Fructuoso, Melania, Illera, Juan Carlos, Rando, Juan Carlos, de Nascimento, Lea, Fernández-Palacios, Enrique, Patiño, Jairo, Otto, Rüdiger, Castilla-Beltrán, Álvaro, González, Esther Martín, Orihuela-Rivero, Raúl, Alcover, Josep Antoni, Whittaker, Robert J. (2025). A synthesis of terrestrial species extinctions in the Macaronesian Islands and their correspondence with human occupancy. PNAS Nexus 4(8): pgaf215. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf215 [Supplementary data (.docx)]
Pieper, Harald. (1985). The fossil land birds of Madeira and Porto Santo. Bocagiana 88: 1-6.
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.