QUITO — Officials in Ecuador said Tuesday that genetic tests had confirmed that a turtle found in 2019 on the Galapagos island of Fernandina is a member a species thought to have gone extinct a century ago.
“It was believed to have gone extinct more than 100 years ago!” Environment Minister Gustavo Marique said in a statement.
“We have reconfirmed its existence. The tortoise of the species Chelonoidis phantasticus was found in #Galapagos”, he said.
Geneticists from Yale University in the United States compared DNA from the female turtle found two years ago with a sample extracted from a male of the species in 1906. The specimen, which is kept in a museum, had been collecte…
Keep on reading: Ecuador confirms Galapagos tortoise is from species thought extinct