Tortoise of a species thought extinct found

Officials in Ecuador said on Tuesday that genetic tests had confirmed that a tortoise found in 2019 on the Galapagos island of Fernandina is a member a species thought to have gone extinct a century ago. “We have reconfirmed its existence. The tortoise of the species Chelonoidis phantasticus was found in #Galapagos”, environment minister Gustavo Marique said. Geneticists from Yale University in the United States compared DNA from the female turtle found two years ago with a sample extracted from a male of the species in 1906. The specimen, which is kept in a museum, had been collected during an expedition by the California Academy of Sciences. The Chelonoidis phantasticus, typical of Fernandina Island, is one of the 15 species of giant tortoises native to the Galapagos archipelago. The Chelonoidis species of Santa Fe Island and the Abingdonii species of Pinta island have disappeared.