A certain giant tortoise has been feared extinct for a hundred years. Now researchers confirm that a living female found in the Galapagos Islands belongs to the species.
The tortoise Chelonoidis phantasticu has only been found once before – in 1906 when a single male was found. Since then, it has been a mystery to experts whether the species has survived or not.
But now American researchers confirm that a female that was surprisingly found in 2019 on Galápagosön Fernandina belongs to the species. This also pointed to genetic analyzes last year. But since the female lacks some distinctive features that were present in the male, the researchers have not previously been sure of their case. Some have even doubted that it is a native turtle from Fernandina.
To get to the bottom of the matter, the researchers have mapped the entire genome of both the female and the male from 1906 – whose remains are preserved in museums. It turned out that the two are closely related and also genetically different from the other 13 known species of Galápagos turtles, according to the results published in the scientific journal Communications Biology.
– I was surprised and once it sank in I was really excited, says the researcher who did the analysis, Stephen Gaughgran at Princeton University in the USA, according to New Scientist.
The unique female, which is estimated to be around 50 years old, has been named Fernanda and now lives in a turtle center in the Galápagos Islands.
Traces of feces from more turtles were recently found during expeditions on Fernandina, which has raised hopes of finding more individuals of the rare species. And if a male is found, the researchers hope that it will be possible to breed the species away from extinction.
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