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Tortoises are the longest-living land animals in the world, although the longest-living species of tortoise is a matter of debate. Galápagos tortoises are noted to live over 150 years, but an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita may have lived an estimated 255 years. In general, most tortoise species can live 80–150 years.
Galápagos tortoises are now thought to have descended from a South American ancestor, [17] while the Indian Ocean tortoises derived from ancestral populations on Madagascar. [ 18 ] [ 19 ] At the end of the 19th century, Georg Baur [ 20 ] and Walter Rothschild [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ] recognised five more populations of Galápagos tortoise.
These tortoises can weigh as much as 417 kg (919 lb) and can grow to be 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) long. Giant tortoises originally made their way to islands from the mainland via oceanic dispersal. Tortoises are aided in such dispersal by their ability to float with their heads up and to survive for up to six months without food or fresh water. [3]
Expect an aquatic turtle to live around 20–30 years in captivity, with some of the marine turtles living for 50 years or more. ... Some tiny turtles may never grow more than 1.5in long, while ...
The neck of the Aldabra giant tortoise is very long, even for its great size, which helps the animal to exploit tree branches up to a meter from the ground as a food source. Similar in size to the famous Galápagos giant tortoise , its carapace averages 122 cm (48 in) in length.
Jonathan the tortoise, who hatched in the Georgian era, is 190 and the oldest known living land animal on Earth. ... an island situated in the midst of the South Atlantic Ocean – since 1882 ...
The tortoise population is estimated to comprise some 6,300 individuals, a decline of 84% since 1840, and the subspecies is considered to be Vulnerable. The tortoise population formerly suffered through predation and trampling of eggs and hatchlings, as well as habitat degradation, by introduced animals including pigs, donkeys and goats.
Scientists have used DNA to link her to a male found in 1906 on a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. ... Scientists have reported that a rare species of giant tortoise thought to have died out ...