Giant tortoise species discovered in Galapagos
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DNA testing has revealed that creatures residing on one island had not previously been reported.
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A new species of giant tortoise has been identified (Geographical.co.uk)
According to Ecuador's Environment Ministry, a new species of giant tortoise has been identified in the iconic archipelago of the Galapagos Islands after DNA testing revealed that creatures residing on one island had not previously been reported.
Researchers matched the genetic material of tortoises living on San Cristobal to bones and shells obtained in 1906 from a cave in the island's mountains and discovered that they were not the same.
The lowlands northeast of the island, where the animals reside now, were never explored by 20th-century explorers, and as a result, over 8,000 tortoises match to a different lineage than previously assumed.
The Ministry tweeted, "The species of giant tortoise that inhabits San Cristobal Island, until now known scientifically as Chelonoidis chathamensis, genetically matches a different species."
A new species of giant tortoise has been discovered in the Galapagos after DNA testing found animals living on one island had not yet been recorded, #Ecuador’s environment ministry said. https://t.co/4tHPC1jjkl pic.twitter.com/Uup6SyZfq6
— Arab News (@arabnews) March 11, 2022
The Galapagos Conservancy stated in an email that the Chelonoidis chathamensis species is "almost certainly extinct," and that the island had in reality been home to two separate tortoise species, one in the mountains and one in the lowlands.
The Galapagos Islands, located in the Pacific around 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador, are a protected wildlife region with distinctive flora and fauna and are also home to over 2,900 marine species.
The infamous islands became renowned after British geologist Charles Darwin wrote his observations on evolution at the location.
According to the Galapagos National Park, there were once 15 species of giant tortoise on the islands. Three became extinct millennia ago.
A specimen of Chelonoidis phantastica was discovered on Fernandina Island in 2019, more than 100 years after the species was thought to be extinct.
The study was published in the scientific journal Heredity by academics from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, Yale University in the United States, the American NGO Galapagos Conservancy, and other institutions.
They will continue to extract DNA from the tortoises' bones and shells to assess whether the tortoises on San Cristobal, which is 557 kilometers long, should be given a new name.
