Darwin, your tortoises may still be here!!

How cool would it be to stumble across the same tortoise that Darwin studied and then used as a basis to his theory of evolution?!? Like this little guy! (Just kidding, these giant tortoises can reach up to and over 800lbs.!!)

When Darwin visited the Galapagos islands in 1835 he noticed how each island had different ecosystems. The different ecosystems on the islands lead to great genetic variation among species. Researchers have recently gone to the Galapagos islands to do DNA testing on some giant Galapagos tortoises. The DNA testing proved that the island must still contain some pure bred Floreana giant tortoises. This excited the researchers because the  Chelonoidis elephantopus (the species of giant tortoise that Darwin had studied on the island of Floreana) had been believed to be extinct due to whalers. Researchers believe that there may still be some Chelonoidis elephantopus still alive, only living on the Galapagos island of Isabela.

The discovery of the Chelonoidis elephantopus still being alive was assisted by the DNA findings of a previous expedition to the Galapagos islands in 1994. The researchers on the 1994 expedition had found some tortoises that were extremely genetically different that the native Isabela giant tortoises. The researchers then placed these tortoises into a separate group which they classified as "aliens" because their genetic make up was so different. This more current expedition to the Galapagos islands in January of this year (2012) resulted in the discovery that the DNA of the "aliens" matched that of the Chelonoidis elephantopus.
Cool right?!?
Anyways...I hope you enjoyed my most recent ramblings!
For now
Yours truly,
The AP Bio Student

P.S If you would like to know more about the Chelonoidis elephantopus discovery, this is a link to the article that I read about it .
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/environment/story/2012-01-06/galapagos-turtles-extinct/52467768/1
P.P.S Thumbs up to those researchers who had to get a blood sample from a giant tortoise!