Galapagos gets a new species of giant tortoise

A genetic study of giant tortoises on the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz reveals two different species and causes some head scratching amongst taxonomists

In 1902, American naturalist Rollo Beck stepped ashore on the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz. He'd been urged by his patron Walter Rothschild "to leave no stone unturned" in his efforts to collect giant tortoises from the island and "after a long and wearisome hunt," he came up trumps. One of the seven specimens Beck collected became the type specimen for the tortoises on this island, now referred to as Chelonoidis porteri.

But just over a century later, in 2005, geneticists demonstrated that there appear to be two distinct species on the island. The two lineages live just 20 km apart yet the clear genetic differences indicate they have been heading in different evolutionary directions for at least 1.7 million years.