研究人员在加拉帕戈斯群岛发现了一种科学未知的巨型陆龟物种

17 March 2022

科学家在厄瓜多尔的加拉帕戈斯群岛

的一个岛上发现以前被误认的巨龟真正新标本。

厄瓜多尔加拉帕戈斯群岛国家公园从近期研究中发布这一发现。

研究来源于英国纽卡斯尔大学和美国耶鲁大学。加拉帕戈斯自然保护协会和美国非盈利集团执行这个研究。

研究人员称“居住在圣克里斯托瓦尔岛的巨龟物种，直到现在在科学上被称为Chelonoidis chathamensis ，在基因上与不同的物种相匹配。”

公园办公室称近 8,000 只乌龟对应的血统与之前认为的不同。他们补充说这些龟完全是未曾描述过的新血统。

研究人员与多种已有标本作基因比对发现的。

chathamensis物种“几乎肯定已经灭绝”，

Scientists have discovered that a giant tortoise on one of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands is really a new species that had been misidentified earlier.

Ecuador's Galapagos National Park announced the findings from a recent study. . Researchers from Newcastle University in England, Yale University in the United States, and the Galapagos Conservancy, an American non-profit group, carried out the study.

The researchers said the giant tortoises living on San Cristóbal Island had been identified with the scientific name of Chelonoidis chathamensis. But the researchers now recognize them as genetically different species, the park said in a statement.

"The scientists concluded that nearly 8,000 tortoises which exist today on San Cristobal are not Chelonoidis chathamensis," park officials said. They added that the tortoises appear to be a completely new lineage that has yet to be described.

Researchers made the discovery through a genetic comparison of the animals with a sample from the already described species.

The lineage once thought to belong to the San Cristóbal tortoises may belong to a species that disappeared from the island.