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Captive Galapagos tortoises can live up to 177 years. [4] For example, a captive individual, Harriet, lived for at least 175 years. Spanish explorers, who discovered the islands in the 16th century, named them after the Spanish galápago, meaning "tortoise". [5] Galápagos tortoises are native to seven of the Galápagos Islands.
However, no confirmed live tortoises, or even remains, were found on Fernandina until the discovery of an elderly female in February 2019. [44] The tortoise has been transferred to a breeding center for the purpose of conservation and genetic tests. [45] [46] Only one confirmed individual, but others may still exist. Fernandina (Narborough) Island
Charles Darwin depicted in an engraving with three species of Galápagos tortoises, including C. n. microphyes (Cassell's Natural History, 1878) The tortoise population is estimated to comprise some 500–1,000 mature individuals, a decline of 94% since 1840, and the subspecies is considered to be Endangered. The tortoises were historically ...
The now-extinct West Indian radiation is thought to group with the Chaco and Galapagos tortoises but is significantly basal to both, and was a rather evolutionary distinct lineage, having diverged well before any of the modern species in the genus did and only 7 mya after the divergence of Chelonoidis from African tortoises. [6]
The tortoise's range is limited to an area of about 800 km 2 on the slopes of the Sierra Negra volcano, from near sea-level to an altitude of around 1,000 m, at the southern end of Isabela Island. There it inhabits deciduous and evergreen forests, dry grassland, introduced vegetation and agricultural land. The population is estimated to ...
Van Denburgh, 1907 : Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the Galapagos Islands, 1905–1906. I. Preliminary descriptions of four new races of gigantic land tortoises from the Galapagos Islands. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, vol. 1, p. 1–6
The tortoise population formerly suffered through predation and trampling of eggs and hatchlings, as well as habitat degradation, by introduced animals including pigs, donkeys and goats. Volcanic eruptions have also affected the tortoises and their habitat, with a major eruption of Alcedo 100,000 years ago thought to be the cause of the ...
Five views of a skull. In 2015, Chelonoidis niger donfaustoi was reclassified as a new subspecies on the basis of genetic and morphological data. [3] C. n. donfaustoi is the sister lineage to C. n. chathamensis on San Cristóbal, and is part of a clade that also includes C. n. hoodensis of Española and C. n. abingdoni of Pinta. [3]