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Life expectancy in the wild is thought to be over 100 years, [111] [112] making it one of the longest-lived species in the animal kingdom. Harriet , a specimen kept in Australia Zoo , was the oldest known Galápagos tortoise, having reached an estimated age of more than 170 years before her death in 2006. [ 113 ]
An Aldabra giant tortoise, an example of a giant tortoise.. Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, [1] as well as two extant species with multiple subspecies formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the Galápagos Islands.
Now, some tortoise species are extinct or extinct in the wild and they live on six of the islands. The tortoises have an average lifespan of over 130 years. The marine iguana is also extremely unusual, since it is the only iguana adapted to life in the sea. Land iguanas, lava lizards, geckos and harmless snakes are also found on the islands.
Chelonoidis is a genus of turtles in the tortoise family erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1835. [2] They are found in South America and the Galápagos Islands, and formerly had a wide distribution in the West Indies. The multiple subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise (C. niger) are among the largest extant terrestrial chelonians.
Van Denburgh, 1907 : Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the Galapagos Islands, 1905–1906. I. Preliminary descriptions of four new races of gigantic land tortoises from the Galapagos Islands. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, vol. 1, p. 1–6
This saddle-backed species is one of the smallest of the Galápagos tortoises. Its brownish-gray, oblong carapace has only a very shallow cervical indentation, the anterior marginals little to much upturned, and the slightly serrated posterior marginals flared and upturned.
Charles Darwin depicted in an engraving with three species of Galápagos tortoises, including C. n. microphyes (Cassell's Natural History, 1878). The tortoise population is estimated to comprise some 500–1,000 mature individuals, a decline of 94% since 1840, and the subspecies is considered to be Endangered.
They are found only on the southwestern slopes of the island, with an estimated range of 141 sq. kilometers. There are approximately 3400 individuals in the wild, and have seen rising numbers in population, despite being critically endangered. MtDNA evidence shows that there are actually three genetically distinct populations on Santa Cruz ...