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View Full Version : ‘Extinct’ Galapagos Tortoise Turns Up on Distant Island



Shadow
01-10-2012, 09:25 PM
A type of giant tortoise, observed in the Galapagos Islands (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WeekendWindow/story?id=6212289) in 1853 by Charles Darwin but thought to have been extinct for 150 years, is apparently alive and well. This news, from a team of biologists at Yale University, would be welcomed by conservationists, and it adds an ironic twist to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
The tortoise, known as Chelonoidis elephantopus, originally lived on Floreana, one of the islands in the Galapagos chain. Biologists believed that by the mid-1800s, they had been wiped out by whalers, who hunted them for food.
But Gisella Caccone and Ryan Garrick of Yale (http://news.yale.edu/2012/01/09/tortoise-species-thought-be-extinct-still-lives-genetic-analysis-reveals) organized a team that took DNA samples from the blood of 1,600 tortoises on Isabela Island, 200 miles away — and the genetic makeup of at least 84 of them was such that they had to have at least one parent who was a member of C. elephantopus. Their genes were significantly different from what was found in other tortoises on the island. From that the scientists could extrapolate, and estimate that at least 38 tortoises would turn out to be purebred members of the species. It’s complicated, but the bottom line, they said, is that an extinct species…isn’t.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/01/extinct-galapagos-tortoise-turns-up-on-distant-island/

CSM
01-10-2012, 09:32 PM
A type of giant tortoise, observed in the Galapagos Islands (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WeekendWindow/story?id=6212289) in 1853 by Charles Darwin but thought to have been extinct for 150 years, is apparently alive and well. This news, from a team of biologists at Yale University, would be welcomed by conservationists, and it adds an ironic twist to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
The tortoise, known as Chelonoidis elephantopus, originally lived on Floreana, one of the islands in the Galapagos chain. Biologists believed that by the mid-1800s, they had been wiped out by whalers, who hunted them for food.
But Gisella Caccone and Ryan Garrick of Yale (http://news.yale.edu/2012/01/09/tortoise-species-thought-be-extinct-still-lives-genetic-analysis-reveals) organized a team that took DNA samples from the blood of 1,600 tortoises on Isabela Island, 200 miles away — and the genetic makeup of at least 84 of them was such that they had to have at least one parent who was a member of C. elephantopus. Their genes were significantly different from what was found in other tortoises on the island. From that the scientists could extrapolate, and estimate that at least 38 tortoises would turn out to be purebred members of the species. It’s complicated, but the bottom line, they said, is that an extinct species…isn’t.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/01/extinct-galapagos-tortoise-turns-up-on-distant-island/

well there ya have it! Species don't go extinct, they just move away!

Shadow
01-10-2012, 09:45 PM
Poor bastard is going to have to move again now that his secluded hiding spot has been found out too.

CSM
01-10-2012, 09:47 PM
Poor bastard is going to have to move again now that his secluded hiding spot has been found out too.

I say we detain that sumbitch and water board his sorry ass until he tells us where the dinosaurs are hiding out!

ConHog
01-10-2012, 09:57 PM
I say we detain that sumbitch and water board his sorry ass until he tells us where the dinosaurs are hiding out!

That will be fine as long as no one asks him for his papers while he's here in the US .

CSM
01-10-2012, 10:49 PM
That will be fine as long as no one asks him for his papers while he's here in the US .

We don't bring him to the US. We detain him in one of our super secret prisons on Pango Pango and keep him there. You know, the same island where they keep those poor GIs who got the incurable veneral disease in South East Asia so they couldn't let them back in the US.

Gunny
01-13-2012, 07:09 PM
We don't bring him to the US. We detain him in one of our super secret prisons on Pango Pango and keep him there. You know, the same island where they keep those poor GIs who got the incurable veneral disease in South East Asia so they couldn't let them back in the US.

Well, since he's extinct, we can deny he ever existed.

PostmodernProphet
01-13-2012, 09:33 PM
That will be fine as long as no one asks him for his papers while he's here in the US .
come on dude, there's no chance that's going to happen........even if he votes.....

PostmodernProphet
01-13-2012, 09:39 PM
lol Jess....we should BOTH be thanking ConHog for the setup....it was too easy.....