New species of Galápagos tortoise discovered

For a very small island that's world famous for its giant tortoises, you'd think we'd know all of them by now.

 

Well, apparently not.

 

Scientists have discovered a new species of giant tortoise on the Galápagos island of Santa Cruz. They described the new species in the journal PLOS ONE.

 

The tortoises were originally thought to be members of another species, Chelonoidis porteri, because they lived on the same island and both had domed carapaces. But the researchers came to the conclusion that there are two “evolutionarily and spatially distinct lineages” on Santa Cruz island, the Reserva population in the western part of the island, and the Cerro Fatal population on the eastern part.

 

They analyzed the DNA from the populations and a museum specimen of C. porteri and came to the conclusion that the Cerro Fatal tortoises are actually part of a different species. They also found that the differences between the Reserva and Cerro Fatal tortoises were as big as the differences between them and tortoises from other islands. According to them, this supports the decision to consider the Cerro Fatal tortoises a new species.

 

The Cerro Fatal tortoises were named Chelonoidis donfaustoi. According to New Scientist, the species name was chosen in honor of Galápagos National Park ranger Fausto Llerana. 

 

“We have enough species named after old, white and mostly British men,” Adalgisa Caccone, one of the researchers involved in the study, told New Scientist. “I just wanted to pay tribute to the work of the people in Galapagos that have devoted their lives to the conservation of these animals.”

 

The study said that recognizing the difference between the two Santa Cruz species is important to conservation efforts. Not only does it reduce the population of C. porteri in the wild to several thousand, but it also limits the range of their habitat. There are only around 250 C. donfaustoi on the wild.

 

“From a conservation standpoint, recognition of this new species will help promote efforts to protect and restore it, given that its low abundance, small geographic range, and reduced genetic diversity make it vulnerable,” the study said. — Bea Montenegro/TJD, GMA News