(I should add, I only mentioned New Zealand Paleocene penguins--the only described Paleocene penguin from elsewhere is Crossvallia unienwillia from the Antarctic Peninsula)

Maybe not a paradise for all, way back then. I reckon it would've smelled pretty bad...

Unfortunately, as is too common of a story, we just missed out on meeting this guy. The most recent bones of this species are from a midden from the 1700s.

The implication is that this rail is not a flightless insular dwarf allied with the chook-sized nativehens (Tribonyx spp.), but rather a bantam-sized island giant that evolved from much smaller ancestors (Porzana fluminea)!

We thought 'New Zealand giant crake' was fitting.

This highlights the usefulness of considering molecular data and morphology together, to better understand evolutionary trends.

A close relationship to the crakes of Porzana was unexpected, and had been previously unconsidered or dismissed on the basis of morphology.

Looking at the bones in the context of this new information, despite the difference in size, there are several features that support this relationship.

The 3 modern species of Porzana are around starling-sized, or smaller. This rail—Porzana hodgenorum—was considerably larger, but still only about the size of a bantam.

Until now, the consensus was that it was a flightless nativehen of Tribonyx (otherwise only known from Australia), Tribonyx hodgenorum.

New genetic evidence shows that it was a member of Porzana—the 7th genus—and the closest relative of the Australian spotted crake (Porzana fluminea).

Since its description 70 years ago, this rail has been placed in 6 different genera, as perhaps a nice illustration of the relative morphological homogeneity across the family Rallidae (which is only further confused by the independent evolution of flightlessness in many species!).