A new species of giant tortoise has been reveal in the Galápagos Islands after desoxyribonucleic acid testing revealed that two unlike metal money had been accidentally mixed up for decades .
The hereditary analysis reveal that the category Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree of the elephantine tortoises in the Galápagos is much more complicated than antecedently appreciate . It was cogitate that the 8,000 elephantine tortoise that presently lumber around San Cristóbal Island were a species known asChelonoidis chathamensis , which was first described on the basis of osseous tissue and shells gather up in a cave in 1906 .
However , it turns out , the DNA of present - sidereal day giant tortoises does n’t touch the honest-to-goodness off-white ofC. chathamensis . or else , the gargantuan tortoises of San Cristóbal belong to another ancestry that ’s never been officially described or give way a scientific name . This also indicates thatC. chathamensisis almost certainly now extinct .
“ It seems potential that there were two species on San Cristóbal , not one , and if this is the cause , the name ofC. chathamensisshould be assigned to the extinct specie , and the extant taxonomic group should be given a new name , ” Galápagos Conservancy , a US - found NGO , said in astatement .
The findings were recently published in the Nature journalHeredity .
As the study notes , theGalápagos Islandsare known as ” a natural laboratory for studying evolutionary process . ” Found some 1,000 kilometers ( ~600 knot ) off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific , the volcanic archipelago is perhaps best be intimate as the fix thathelped to inspireand inform Charles Darwin ’s theory ofevolutionby means of natural natural selection .
Darwin analyse the endemical species of the island during the second ocean trip of HMS Beagle in the 1830s . Through collect samples and making observations , he came to deeply sympathize the diversification of species and the forces that guide this process .
These are ideas that we ’re still seeing play out today in the Galápagos . San Cristóbal Island was likely once two separate islands divided by high sea degree trillion of years ago , each of which nurse its own tortoise species . Once ocean grade dribble , the two island merge , as perhaps did their tortoises .
The island still bears this legacy , with thesouthwestern surgical incision dwell of lushly vegetate upland and the northeastern section being monotonic and more arid . The southwesterly region was once cover in giant tortoise , most likelyC. chathamensis , but the universe was decimated by hunting in the early 20th century . Today , elephantine tortoises can only be found in considerable numbers in thenortheastern region . These two different surround , once divided by a geographical roadblock , are likely to be how these two species — C. chathamensisand the newly key out filiation — came into being .
The grand of tortoises roaming aroundSan Cristóbal recently receive an injection of newfangled life too . Back in March 2021 , a group of 36 expose giant tortoise reared in captivity weretransported backto San Cristóbal . It was assumed this species wasC. chathamensis , but the new genetic analysis shows they , in fact , go to this never - before - documented bloodline .
