Galapagos Islands: New species of giant tortoise discovered

Anew species of giant tortoise has been discovered in the Galapagos Islands, in the Paci c cean off the coast of Ecuador.

Researchers took

DNA samples from the animals living on one island and found that they had never been recorded before.

Scientists compared the genetics of giant tortoises on the island now, with tortoise bone samples from 1906 and discovered that they were different. This surprise meant the scientists had discovered a new species!

Researchers from the University of Newcastle in the UK and Yale University in the USA, found that the DNA samples from museums, did not match the tortoises living on the island now.

It was thought that the tortoises living on San Crist bal, the fth largest island of the Galapagos, all came from one single species called Chelonoidis chathamensis.

But this new discovery of species suggests that there may be many tortoises on the island currently which are from a different species.

Scientists will try to recover DNA from the bones of shells of the tortoises in museums, so they can see if the tortoises living now will need to be given a new name and understand how they are related to each other.

The Galapagos islands are a UNESC World Heritage Site, because of its huge amount of wildlife and biological diversity.

There are species on the islands that aren’t found anywhere else in the world.