DNA study reveals that there is a new species of giant tortoise in Galapagos

A DNA study determined that the giant tortoises that inhabit San Cristóbal Island in the Galapagos correspond to a new species that has not yet been described by science, the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment reported Thursday.

“The species of giant tortoise that inhabits San Cristóbal Island, until now scientifically known as Chelonoidis chathamensis, genetically corresponds to, noted the portfolio on his Twitter account.

Researchers from the University of Newcastle, Yale University, the Galapagos Conservancy and other institutions compared the genetic material of the tortoises that currently inhabit San Cristóbal, an island of 557 km of extension, with that of the California Academy of Sciences in a cave of the highlands of the island.

When the description of Chelonoidis chathamensis was made, the expeditionary group that collected the bones from the cave never reached the lowlands northeast of San Cristóbal, where the tortoises currently live.

With that, “scientists concluded that the almost eight thousand tortoises that exist today in San Cristóbal could not be Chelonoidis chathamensis, but rather ”, The Environment Ministry said in a statement.

The American NGO Galápagos Conservancy added in a bulletin that the group of Chelonoidis chathamensis from the San Cristóbal plateau “it is almost certainly extinct” and that not one but two different varieties of tortoise inhabited the island, one living in the highlands and one in the lowlands.

Danny Rueda, director of the Galapagos National Park (PNG), commented that “This finding for Galapagos means the” that have the species of the archipelago, located 1,000 km off the coast of Ecuador.

The finding was the result of a comparison of the genetic analyzes of the tortoises that currently inhabit the island with the DNA of the previously described tortoises. Genetic studies of Galapagos giant tortoises began in 1995 and by the end of 1999 they had been completed; then the study of the extinct species was carried out, reports the Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador.

The study, which was published in the scientific journal Heredity, will continue with the recovery of more DNA from bones and shells to clarify whether the living San Cristóbal tortoises should be given a new name.

San Cristóbal millions of years ago may have been divided in two by the sea and each part had its own species of turtle. But once the water level dropped, the two islands merged, as did their turtles.

Galapagos, a Natural World Heritage Site with unique flora and fauna in the world, gets its name from the giant tortoises. In the archipelago there were originally 15 species of giant turtles, of which three became extinct centuries ago, according to the PNG.

In 2019, a specimen of Chelonoidis phantastica was found on Fernandina Island after more than a hundred years of being considered extinct.

Agencies