Galapagos Tortoise

Ever wondered what the rarest animal in the world is? For a while, the distinction belonged to Lonesome George, the last of his kind of Pinta Island tortoises, whose once lush habitat had been ravaged by the introduction of feral goats. Lonesome George, who had the cooler Spanish name of El Solitario Jorge, a member of the Galápagos Tortoise subspecies C. n. abingdonii, native to the island of Pinta. Scientists tried to mate George with other Galápagos tortoise subspecies that are close to his own, but these attempts failed to produce viable eggs. Unfortunately, Lonesome George died on June 24, 2012, marking yet another species’ decline into extinction.

The Galápagos tortoise, also known as Chelonoidis nigra or Galápagos giant tortoise are the biggest living tortoise species. They are also the 10th heaviest reptiles that roam the earth, weighing over 880 pounds or 400 kilograms, growing up to 5.9 ft or 1.8 meters in length. Lonesome George, who passed away at 100-years old, was still an adolescent, with a captive Galápagos tortoise once living up to 170-years old.

Galápagos giant tortoises only eat plants. They consume berries, lichens, grasses, and cacti that grow around the area. They have also been known to eat Hippomane mancinella, locally known as poison apples, guavas and water ferns. They usually consume about 32–36 kilograms of food a day. However, most food they consume doesn’t pass through nutritional extraction because of inefficient digestion.

While observing these animals, Charles Darwin thought that these animals were deaf since they could not hear him walking behind them. These tortoises are not deaf however, they depend much more on their sense of sight and smell to cope with their surroundings.

 

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Remains of Giant Turtle Discovered – No Teens or Mutants, though

The discovery of the remains of a giant turtle has become the subject of a lot of attention recently, given how much of a “giant” the discovery was – estimated to be as big as a small car when it was alive.

Found in the dig-site of a Columbian coal mile, the fossilized remains of a giant Carbonemys cofrinii (AKA Coal Turtle) is estimated to be 60 million years old, with the giant turtle prowling the earth with massive powerful jaws.

Researches also noted the presence of another fossil close to the proximity of the giant turtle, the shell of another turtle of the same species, which measures five feet and seven inches wide.

"It's like having one big snapping turtle living in the middle of a lake. That turtle survives because it has eaten all of the major competitors for resources," shares Researcher, Dan Ksepka of North Carolina State University, referring to the setup the fossilized remains were found.

The giant turtle discovery falls in line with the area’s reputation for gigantic creatures being present at the time, with records even indicating that one of the largest snake fossils ever found hails from the same area, estimated to have been alive some 60 million years ago.

The giant turtle, given its size, was in the position to basically devour anything it could grab hold, as the image of the giant turtle wrestling with a crocodile comes into mind. The turtle is winning, of course.

With a skull comparably as large as football player’s helmet, the power of its jaws would have been really strong, and as it size is massive, the allusion of a Classic Volkswagen Beetle would understandably come up, when talking about the giant turtle’s car-comparable comparison.

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