It's humbling to think of seeing an entire subspecies being wiped out by this one simple event.
I saw Lonesome George in person just last December - although at a fair distance (he wasn't particularly friendly to the tourists!)
On the same trip we saw a whole new hybrid species that had never been seen before - as confirmed by the scientists at the same place that George lived. The whole cycle of evolution is visible in a very small and isolated location.
- "Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his kind."
- "Some 20,000 giant tortoises still live on the Galapagos."
That confused me a bit. My interpretation is that Lonesome George belonged to a species of giant tortoises that is not extinct, but there are still several other species of giant tortoises in the wild. Is that correct?
I saw Lonesome George in person just last December - although at a fair distance (he wasn't particularly friendly to the tourists!)
On the same trip we saw a whole new hybrid species that had never been seen before - as confirmed by the scientists at the same place that George lived. The whole cycle of evolution is visible in a very small and isolated location.