Galápagos tortoise
The Galápagos giant tortoise complex are the largest living species of tortoise. They are native to seven of the islands, and can weigh up to 417 kg. With lifespans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates.
About Galápagos tortoise in brief
The Galápagos giant tortoise complex are the largest living species of tortoise. They are native to seven of the islands, and can weigh up to 417 kg. With lifespans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates. Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 3,000 in the 1970s. Conservation efforts, beginning in the 20th century, have resulted in thousands of captive-bred juveniles being released onto their ancestral home islands. The total number of the species is estimated to have exceeded 19,000 at the start of the 21st century. Despite this rebound, all surviving species are classified as \”threatened\” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.See: List of species of GaláPagos tortoiseSee section. The Galá pagos tortoises were discovered in 1535, but first appeared on the maps, of Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, around 1570. The islands were named \”Insulae de los Galopegos\” in reference to the giant Tortoises found there. Initially, the giant tortoise of the Indian Ocean and those from the Galá pagos were considered to be the same species. In 1676, the pre-Linnaean authority Claude Perrault referred to both species as Tortue des Indes. In 1783, Johann Gottlob Schneider classified all giant tortoises as Testudo indica.
In 1812, August Friedrich Schweigger named them Testudo gigantea. In 1834, André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron classified the Gal Pagas as a separate species, which they named Testudo nigrita. In 1905–06, an expedition by the California Academy of Sciences, with Joseph Rlevin in charge, collected specimens of the reptiles, which were collected in Baur Island, the Seychelles and Mascarenes. At the end of the 19th century, Georg Baur and Walter Rothschild recognised five more tortoise populations of the Galápágos. This single population spread by land bridges which have never been linked to a land continent by a land bridge. The species is now thought to have descended from a South American ancestor, while the ancestral populations on Madagascar derived from ancestral populations on the South Indian Ocean. 10 species of the original 15 survive in the wild; an 11th species had only a single known living individual, kept in captivity and nicknamed Lonesome George until his death in June 2012. The extinction of most giant Tortoise lineages is thought to be caused by predation by humans or human ancestors, as the tortoised themselves have no natural predators. The Gal Págagos islands are 1,000 km due west of mainland Ecuador; and the Aldabrachelys of Aldabra is 700 km east of Tanzania.
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This page is based on the article Galápagos tortoise published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
