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Reviving a Lost Species: The Case of the Floreana Galápagos Giant Tortoise Chelonoidis elephantopus

View ORCID ProfileJoshua M. Miller, Maud C. Quinzin, Nikos Poulakakis, James P. Gibbs, Luciano B. Beheregaray, Ryan C. Garrick, Michael A. Russello, Claudio Ciofi, Danielle L. Edwards, Elizabeth A. Hunter, Washington Tapia, Danny Rueda, Jorge Carrión, Andrés A. Valdivieso, Adalgisa Caccone
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/143131
Joshua M. Miller
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St. New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, United States of America
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  • ORCID record for Joshua M. Miller
  • For correspondence: joshua.miller@yale.edu adalgisa.caccone@yale.edu
Maud C. Quinzin
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St. New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, United States of America
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Nikos Poulakakis
2Department of Biology, School of Sciences and Engineering, University of Crete, Vasilika Vouton, Gr-71300, Heraklio, Crete, Greece
3Natural History Museum of Crete, School of Sciences and Engineering, University of Crete, Knossos Av., GR-71409, Heraklio, Crete, Greece
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James P. Gibbs
4College of Environmental Science & Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, 13210, United States of America
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Luciano B. Beheregaray
5Molecular Ecology Lab, School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia
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Ryan C. Garrick
6Department of Biology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, 38677, United States of America
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Michael A. Russello
7Department of Biology, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Claudio Ciofi
8Department Biology, University of Florence, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy
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Danielle L. Edwards
9Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 N Lake Rd, Merced, California, 95343, United States of America
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Elizabeth A. Hunter
10Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada - Reno, Max Fleischmann Agricultural Building, Reno NV 89557 USA
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Washington Tapia
11Galapagos Conservancy, Fairfax, Virginia, 22030, United States of America
12Galápagos National Park Directorate, Puerto Ayora, Galápagos, Ecuador
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Danny Rueda
12Galápagos National Park Directorate, Puerto Ayora, Galápagos, Ecuador
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Jorge Carrión
12Galápagos National Park Directorate, Puerto Ayora, Galápagos, Ecuador
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Andrés A. Valdivieso
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St. New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, United States of America
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Adalgisa Caccone
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St. New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, United States of America
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  • For correspondence: joshua.miller@yale.edu adalgisa.caccone@yale.edu
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Abstract

Species are being lost at an unprecedented rate due to human-driven environmental changes. The cases in which species declared extinct can be revived are extremely rare. However, here we report that a remote volcano in the Galápagos Islands hosts many giant tortoises with extremely high ancestry from a species previously declared as extinct: Chelonoidis elephantopus or the Floreana tortoise. Of 150 individuals with distinctive morphology sampled from the volcano, genetic analyses revealed that 65 had C. elephantopus ancestry Thirty-two were translocated from the volcano’s slopes to a captive breeding center. A genetically informed captive breeding program now being initiated will, over the next decades, return C. elephantopus tortoises to Floreana Island to serve as engineers of the island’s ecosystems. Ironically, it was the haphazard translocations by mariners killing tortoises for food centuries ago that created the unique opportunity to revive this “lost” species today.

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Posted May 27, 2017.
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Reviving a Lost Species: The Case of the Floreana Galápagos Giant Tortoise Chelonoidis elephantopus
Joshua M. Miller, Maud C. Quinzin, Nikos Poulakakis, James P. Gibbs, Luciano B. Beheregaray, Ryan C. Garrick, Michael A. Russello, Claudio Ciofi, Danielle L. Edwards, Elizabeth A. Hunter, Washington Tapia, Danny Rueda, Jorge Carrión, Andrés A. Valdivieso, Adalgisa Caccone
bioRxiv 143131; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/143131
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Reviving a Lost Species: The Case of the Floreana Galápagos Giant Tortoise Chelonoidis elephantopus
Joshua M. Miller, Maud C. Quinzin, Nikos Poulakakis, James P. Gibbs, Luciano B. Beheregaray, Ryan C. Garrick, Michael A. Russello, Claudio Ciofi, Danielle L. Edwards, Elizabeth A. Hunter, Washington Tapia, Danny Rueda, Jorge Carrión, Andrés A. Valdivieso, Adalgisa Caccone
bioRxiv 143131; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/143131

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