![]() In 2019, the female tortoise nicknamed “Fernanda” was found in an isolated patch of vegetation, cut off from the main vegetated area on the southeast of the island by several lava flows. The male specimen used in the study was collected by the explorer Rollo Beck during an expedition by the California Academy of Sciences in 1906. Fernandina Island is an active volcano that stands alone on western periphery of the Galapagos Archipelago and is reputed to be the largest pristine island on Earth. Whether there are any remaining tortoises living on Fernandina Island has intrigued biologists for over a century. It is a truly exciting discovery that the species is not in fact extinct, but lives on.” “Only two tortoises have ever been found on Fernandina Island, and here we have shown that they are indeed members of the same species, and different from the other Galapagos tortoises. Study lead author, Dr Evelyn Jensen, Lecturer in Molecular Ecology at Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, said: The study was led by researchers from the universities of Newcastle, UK, and Princeton and Yale, in the USA. ![]() Publishing their findings in the journal Communications Biology, the scientists sequenced the genomes of both individuals and compared them to all living species of Galapagos giant tortoises, revealing that the two known Fernandina tortoises are from the same lineage and distinct from all others. ![]() Their analysis confirmed that the tortoise found alive is from species thought to be extinct more than a century ago. An international research team sequenced the genome of a the only known specimen of the Fernandina Island Galapagos giant tortoise found in 1906 and compared it with that of a female tortoise that was found living on the island in 2019. ![]()
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