Extinct tortoise in the Galapagos Found Back

GALAPAGOS - Dozens of giant tortoises of a species Believed to have gone extinct 150 years ago it was rediscovered in a remote location, the Galapagos Islands region. The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.
In the journal it shows at least 38 turtles from Chelonoidis Elephantopus class living on the slopes of the volcano about 200 miles north of the island of Isabela. The existence of Reviews These turtles away from the endemic region before declared extinct as a result of the search of the whales hunted by the island of Floreana.
"It's not just for academic purposes," said a senior lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale University, Gisella Caccone, which was Launched in one of the science website on Tuesday (10/1).
A team of Yale Researchers visiting Mount Wolf on the northern tip of Isabela Island in 2008, they took blood samples from 1,600 tortoises. They then compare the sample with a database of genetic and species of turtles that were previously Believed to be extinct.
The results of the analysis to detect genetic markers Elephantopus C. in 84 Volcano Wolf tortoises. That is, the type of parent they are members of a class of species that have Become extinct. In 30 breeding has occurred in the last 15 years.
With an estimated age of a turtle can exceed 100 years, there is the possibility of the type of turtle is still there that live and breed in the wild. "This is the first report of the rediscovery of a species by way of tracking the genetic offspring in the genome that has been crossed," says Yale University researcher Ryan Garrick.