Galapagos Species Database

Taxon category: Accepted

Syn.: Chelonoidis nigrita (Duméril & Bibron, 1835), Geochelone nigrita (Duméril & Bibron, 1835), Testudo porteri Rothschild, 1903, Chelonoidis nigra porteri Rothschild, 1903, Geochelone porteri Fritts, 1983. Le et al. (2006) demonstrate that the genus Geochelone is polyphyletic and that the Galapagos Giant Tortoises are better treated as the monophyletic genus Chelonoidis. According to Márquez et al. (2004) and Poulakakis et al. (2008) the Geochelone taxa (= Chelonoidis) from Galapagos are genetically distinct and therefore treated as species and not as subspecies of Geochelone (= Chelonoidis) nigra.

Taxon origin: Endemic

Distribution: Restricted to Santa Cruz Island: El Chato, west of the island.

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