Galapagos Species Database

Taxon category: Accepted

Syn.: Geochelone hoodensis (Van Denburgh, 1907), Testudo hoodensis Van Denburgh, 1907, Chelonoidis nigra hoodensis Van Denburgh, 1907, Testudo elephantopus hoodensis Mertens & Wermuth, 1955, Geochelone elephantopus hoodensis Pritchard 1967; Type specimen in CAS. Le et al. (2006) demonstrate that the genus Geochelone is polyphyletic and that the Galapagos Giant Tortoises are better treated as the monophyletic genus Chelonoidis. According to Márquez et al. (2004) and Poulakakis et al. (2008) the Geochelone taxa (= Chelonoidis) from Galapagos are genetically distinct and therefore treated as species and not as subspecies of Geochelone (= Chelonoidis) nigra.

Origin: Endemic

Distribution: Restricted to Española Island.

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