A study led by a scientist at Newcastle University has reported that a rare species of giant tortoise thought to have died out more than a century go is not actually extinct.
Genetic research has shown a female specimen discovered on one of the Galapagos Islands in 2019 was related to the only previously-known example, found in 1906. There were signs that there may be other tortoises of the same species living with her on Fernandina, an island and pristine wildlife habitat in the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.
Scientists sequenced genomes of the previous specimen, known as chelonoidis phantasticus, and the 2019 female, who has since been named Fernanda, and compared them with all living species of Galápagos giant tortoises. They subsequently found that the two were linked and distinct from all others, according to the findings published in Communications Biology.
