Lonesome George, the last surviving Pinta giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra abingdoni) on Santa Cruz. He died on June 24, 2012.WIKIMEDIA, PUTNEYMARKGiant tortoises that once inhabited the Galapagos Island of Floreana may get another chance at existence, thanks to the efforts of researchers working to recreate a close genetic facsimile of the species by breeding together related species that contain traces of the extinct reptiles’ DNA.
Scientists working in the far flung archipelago have corralled more than 30 tortoises with morphologies reminiscent of Floreana tortoises that have the highest amounts of Floreana tortoise DNA, each enclosure containing three females and two males, in the hopes that the animals will mate and produce offspring that approach the genetic profile of the long lost species.
Scientists declared the Floreana tortoises (Chelonoidis elephantopus) extinct in the 1800s, a result of sailors of the era capturing and eating the animals on long ocean journeys back to Europe. But in 2008, researchers studying tortoises on the island of Isabela discovered that some individuals in that population contained genetic traces of Floreana tortoises.
“This is a species that was considered extinct for 160 years,” Washington Tapia, one ...
