Of the 150 or so different species of rail, 31 of them are flightless, so rails that can't fly are actually really common and even more prolific than flightless ratites. One of these flightless rails is the chicken-sized Aldabra rail, the only flightless bird in the Indian Ocean. This particular bird is quite special, though, because it is one of only a few examples of iterative evolution, which is when two different populations of the same species evolve the same adaptation at different times.

According to Phys.org, the Aldabra rail became flightless twice — the first time was after a population of white throated rails migrated east from Madagascar and colonized the atoll of Aldabra in the Indian Ocean. These birds eventually lost the ability to fly, but were wiped out by rising seas 136,000 years ago. Then, about 36,000 years later, after the sea level fell and the atoll reappeared, a second colony of white throated rails moved in and also lost the ability to fly. These are the Aldabra rails that are still around today.

The extinct Aldabra rail and the one that currently lives on Aldabra are not exactly the same species, but still, it's kind of like watching one phoenix rise from the ashes of another.

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