Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Giant tortoise may not be extinct

Missing reptile's recent offspring found
It's hard to misplace a Galapagos tortoise, an animal that looks like a Volkwswagon beetle, only slightly smaller.  Charles Darwin described one such, Chelonoidis elephantopus, from Floreana Island.

It was thought extinct for some 150 years now, but hybrid tortoises on a nearby island were sired by the Floreana type only 15 years ago, an eyeblink in a tortoise's lifetime.  So the search is on for the species once again. 

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