The “Fantastic Giant Tortoise” – Believed To Be Extinct – Has Been Found Alive
Princeton University geneticist Stephen Gaughran has confirmed that "Fernanda" is connected to a tortoise that was removed from Fernandina Island more than a century ago and that both of them are genetically different from all other Galápagos tortoises. A Galápagos species of tortoise that was previously believed to be extinct has been found to still be alive. The tortoise, named Fernanda after her native Fernandina Island, is the first of its kind to be found in more than a century. The Fernandina Island Galápagos giant tortoise, sometimes known as the "wonderful gigantic tortoise," was only ever found as a single individual. The finding of a female tortoise on Fernandina Island in 2019 provided the opportunity to determine whether the species is still extant. By sequencing the genomes of the living creature and the museum specimen and comparing them to the other 13 species of Galápagos giant tortoises, Stephen Gaughran from Princeton University proved that the two...