A once-extinct bird species "re-evolved" itself into existence and returned to the island it once colonized thousands of years ago, researchers say.

The Aldabra white-throated rail bird was declared extinct, a victim of rising sea levels almost 100,000 years ago.

Aldabra bird was a product of ‘iterative evolution’. That’s when old genes thought to have died out re-emerge at a different point in time. That means that while a bird’s ancestors might have disappeared, that DNA still remains – and provided the environment is right, there’s nothing to stop those ancient genes from replicating in modern times. So identical species can indeed produce multiple, slightly evolved offshoots, throughout the course of their species’ history.

But don’t get your hopes up that this means dinosaurs and wooly mammoths will be popping up next. This scientific phenomenon only occurs within species that are nearly identical to their ancestors.

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