Fernanda (IMAGE)
Caption
Fernanda, the only known living Fernandina giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or “fantastic giant tortoise”), now lives at the Galápagos National Park's Giant Tortoise Breeding Center on Santa Cruz Island. Fernanda, named after her Fernandina Island home, is the first of her species identified in more than a century. Princeton geneticist Stephen Gaughran successfully extracted DNA from a specimen collected from the same island more than a century ago and confirmed that Fernanda and the museum specimen are members of the same species and genetically distinct from all other Galápagos tortoises. Courtesy of the Galápagos Conservancy
Credit
Courtesy of the Galápagos Conservancy
Usage Restrictions
Editorial use only
License
Original content