Image copyright AFP Zoologists have discovered a new species of giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador. Reptili given name Chelonoidis donfaustoi – in honor of Fausto Llerena, care for the legendary Lonesome George.
On the island of Santa Cruz experts have identified two genetically distinct populations that do not intersect with other turtles of the archipelago in the genome.
According minpripody Ecuador, Santa Cruz live only about 250 turtles.
Lonesome George was named representative of the Galapagos tortoises, who died in 2012 – presumably at the age of 100 years.
By the end of the XIX century in the Galapagos archipelago there was a very large tortoise colony, but after the sailors and fishermen began to kill the turtles for their meat, their population has practically disappeared.
The existence of external differences between turtles living on different islands of the archipelago, in particular, helped the British biologist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution.
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