Hiding in plain sight was a species of Tortoise that has never been seen before. The new breed has been identified using genetic data to determine that a group of 250 of the slowly moving reptiles were distinct from the rest of the tortoise species that were residing in the Pacific archipelago.
The newly found species lives in a 15-square mile area of Santa Cruz Island and is genetically different from the tortoises found on this island or any of the other islands found in that region, according to Newsmax.
Scientists had long thought that all the tortoise inhabiting the island were from the same species. The discovery of the new species, detailed in a study reported Oct. 21 in the journal PLOS ONE, is likely to help focus attention on the newly named Eastern Santa Cruz Tortoise (Chelonoidis donfaustoi), according to Dr. James Gibbs, a team member and conservation biologist at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York.
"This is a small and isolated group of tortoises that never attracted much attention from biologists previously," said Gibbs, who took part in the first research expeditions to explore the new species' range and behavior. "But we now know that they are as distinct as any species of tortoise in the archipelago. Their discovery and formal description will help these tortoises receive the scientific and management attention they need to fully recover."
There are two populations of giant tortoises on the island - a large one on the west side in an area known as the "Reserve" - and another on the lower eastern slopes around a hill named "Cerro Fatal," according to the Canada Journal.
The researchers now believe that 15 giant tortoise species lived on the island, out of which four are extinct. Daniel Mulcahy from the Smithsonian said that the hybridization and the two groups' striking similarities make him sceptical about the findings. The ones who have made the discovery however, remain certain that there definitely is legitimacy in their discovery, according to the Inquistr.
