A tortoise from a Galápagos species that was thought to be extinct has been discovered living. The tortoise, called Fernanda after her habitat on Fernandina Island, is the first of its kind to be discovered in over a century.

The only known specimen of the Fernandina Island Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or “fantastic giant tortoise”) was recovered in 1906. The finding of a female tortoise on Fernandina Island in 2019 provides an opportunity to see if the species still exists.

Stephen Gaughran of Princeton demonstrated by sequencing the genomes of both the living individual and the museum specimen and comparing them to the other 13 species of Galápagos giant tortoises that the two known Fernandina tortoises are genetically unique from all others.

He’s a co-first author on a research published in the current edition of Communications Biology that confirms her species’ survival.

“For many years, it was thought that the original specimen collected in 1906 had been transplanted to the island as it was the only one of its kind,” says Peter Grant. “It now seems to be one of a very few that were alive a century ago.”

When Fernanda was found, many ecologists didn’t believe she was a local phantasticus tortoise. She lacks the male historical specimen’s distinctive saddleback flare, though scientists suggest that her clearly restricted growth may have affected her looks. Tortoises cannot swim from one island to another, although they can float and can be dragged from one island to another in the Galápagos during hurricanes or other big storms. Seafarers have also been known to transport tortoises across islands in the past.

“Like many people, my initial suspicion was that this was not a native tortoise of Fernandina Island,” adds Gaughran.

Gaughran sequenced Fernanda’s entire genome and matched it to the genome he was able to retrieve from the specimen taken in 1906 to firmly confirm her species. He also compared those two genomes to samples from the other 13 Galápagos tortoises, including three individuals from each of the 12 surviving species and one from the extinct C. abingdonii.

“We saw — honestly, to my surprise — that Fernanda was very similar to the one that they found on that island more than 100 years ago, and both of those were very different from all of the other islands’ tortoises,” the author adds.

“The finding of one alive specimen gives hope and also opens up new questions, as many mysteries still remain,” adds Adalgisa Caccone, senior author of the paper.

Image Credit: Getty

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