 In 1987 , scientists described fossils of a recently extinct species of ibis from Réunion with a relatively short beak , Borbonibis <unk> , before a connection to the solitaire reports had been made . Cheke suggested to one of the authors , Francois <unk> , that the fossils may have been of the Réunion solitaire , and this suggestion was published in 1995 . The ibis was reassigned to the genus Threskiornis , now combined with the specific epithet solitarius from the binomial R. solitarius . Birds of this genus are also white and black with slender beaks , fitting the old descriptions of the Réunion solitaire . No fossil remains of dodo @-@ like birds have ever been found on the island . 
