New giant tortoises discovered - 30th May 2022

Naturalists have uncovered a new species of giant tortoise living on the Galapagos Island of San Cristobal. The wrinkly inhabitants of the Galapagos's fifth largest island were all assumed to be of the same species. Although believed for generations, recent research has disproved this assumption.

Bones and shells of giant tortoises, collected in 1906 from a cave in the highlands of the island, had been used to classify all the giant tortoises on the island. The lowlands of the island hadn't been explored.

This oversight was discovered by research partners from the UK and the US, who work at the University of Newcastle and Yale University. Samples of the bones from 1906 and those from giant tortoises on San Cristobal's lowlands today underwent analysis. DNA from the samples identified differences which provided the proof that the tortoises had been misclassified.

Lying 1,000 kilometres west of the Ecuadorian coast, the Galapagos Islands were made famous by the naturalist Charles Darwin. In 1845, he explored the islands and observed the unique species of flora and fauna which, in turn, inspired him to write The Origin of Species. The publication came to be a fundamental concept in science and the Galapagos is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

News of the discovery has been warmly welcomed. Ecuador's environment minister, Gustavo Manrique Miranda, is proud that San Cristobal island is home to a new species. Scientists will now attempt to extract DNA from the bones or shells of the tortoises in museums. This will establish whether the tortoises living now need a new name and help understand how they are related to each other.