''Centrochelys atlantica'' is a putative

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

supposed to have lived in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

recorded in the volcanic crater on Sal,

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

. Tortoise fossils were described but not named from the crater in 1935.Chevalier, A., Joleaud , L., and Petit, G. 1935. Les dépôts quaternaires de l’ancien cratère de Pedra de Lume (île de Sal, archipel du Cap-Vert). ''Comptes Rendus des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris'' 200:1334–1335. Four further bones from a private collector supposed to have been found in the same crater were described in 1998 as a new species similar to the extant ''Testudo calcarata'' (= ''

Centrochelys sulcata The African spurred tortoise (''Centrochelys sulcata''), also called the sulcata tortoise, is an endangered species of tortoise inhabiting the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, the Sahel, in Africa. It is the largest mainland species of tortoi ...

''), differentiated from ''C. sulcata'' by its smaller size and lesser robusticity. However, Kehlmaier ''et al.'' (2021) identified the type material of this species as belonging to a specimen of the

red-footed tortoise The red-footed tortoise (''Chelonoidis carbonarius'') is a species of tortoise from northern South America. These medium-sized tortoises generally average as adults, but can reach over . They have dark-colored (nearly black), “loaf”-shaped ...

, making ''C. atlantica'' a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of the latter species.

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

also revealed that the bones were from an individual that lived between 1962 and 1974 rather than being fossils. This leaves the extinct tortoise known from fossils excavated on the Sal Island in the 1930s currently without a scientific name. It does not seem there is any evidence this species came into contact with humans.

References

{{Testudinidae Testudinidae Pleistocene turtles Neogene reptiles of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1998