Researchers may be able to recreate a species of giant tortoise that went extinct from the Galapagos Islands with a program of careful breeding. The new possibility hinges on the discovery that a species of giant tortoise living on the biggest island, Isabela, is very similar genetically to the extinct species, Geochelone elephantopus, which vanished from the island Floreana over a hundred years ago.
By mating Isabela tortoises that are most genetically similar to G. elephantopus, selecting the offspring that are most similar and mating those, through successive generations the species’ genetic makeup may be largely restored [The New York Times].
Says lead researcher Gisella Caccone:
"We might need three or four generations to do this.... But in theory it could be done, and I think it's pretty exciting to bring back from the dead a genome that we thought was gone" [BBC News].
The Galapagos once had 15 species ...
