The Tenerife giant tortoise (''Centrochelys burchardi'') is an extinct species of cryptodire turtle in the family

Testudinidae 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 ot ...

endemic to the island of

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

, in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

during the

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

Characteristics

The species has an estimated carapace length of around . similar to giant tortoises currently found in some oceanic islands like the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and

Aldabra Aldabra, the world's second-largest coral atoll (the largest is Kiritimati), is located east of the continent of Africa. It is part of the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that are part of the Outer Islands (Seychelles), Outer Islands ...

and the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

in the Indian Ocean. Remains of ''C. burchardi'' date to the

, around 670-200,000 years ago. Most fossils are of bones and shells, as well as a nest of fossilized eggs found in volcanic soil in the south of Tenerife, in the present municipality of

Adeje Adeje is a town and municipality in the southwestern part of the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, and part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (province), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The town Adeje is located 4 km from ...

. This species of giant tortoise was described in 1926 by

Ernst Ahl Christoph Gustav Ernst Ahl (1 September 1898 – 14 February 1945) was a German zoologist, born in Berlin. He was the director of the department of ichthyology and herpetology in the Museum für Naturkunde. He was also the editor in chief of th ...

, the first time a giant tortoise endemic to the Canary Islands described. Another extinct tortoise species, '' C. vulcanica'', is known from the island of

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

. ''C. burchardi'' had a larger shell, with a length of approximately 65 to 94 cm, while ''C. vulcanica'' shell had a 61 cm.El legado paleontológico de nuestras islas
/ref> It is believed that the ancestors of these tortoises could reach the eastern islands of the Canary Islands from the African continent and progressively moved to westward through that archipelago as their size also increased and its appearance evolved to adapt to the conditions of the archipelago. Fossilized tortoise eggs have been found in the islands of

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

and

Fuerteventura Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, geographically part of Macaronesia, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the coast of North Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO i ...

; however, these eggs have not yet been properly described or named. The species of Fuerteventura has been linked to ''C. burchardi'', but this identification is uncertain, and has been challenged.The Recently Extinct Plants and Animals Database Extinct Reptiles: Geochelone
/ref> While often placed in the genus ''

Centrochelys ''Centrochelys'' is a genus of tortoise. It contains one living species, the African spurred tortoise (''Centrochelys sulcata''), native to the Sahel and adjacent areas. A number of fossil species have been attributed to this genus, but their p ...

'', which contains the living

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

, the limited remains of the species make its placement in the genus uncertain, and thus the species is often referred to as ''"Centrochelys" burchardi.''

References

{{Testudinidae Miocene turtles Geochelone Extinct reptiles Reptiles of the Canary Islands Pliocene turtles Pleistocene turtles Miocene species first appearances Pleistocene species extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1926

Characteristics

See also

References