Genetic duplications may confer long life, cancer resistance to Galápagos giant tortoises
Galápagos giant tortoises can weigh well over 300 pounds and often live over 100 years. So what's the secret to their evolutionary success?
Galápagos giant tortoises can weigh well over 300 pounds and often live over 100 years. So what's the secret to their evolutionary success?
Plants & Animals
Nov 19, 2021
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408
A rare study shows how one of Georgia's barrier islands provides a safe haven for gopher tortoises and gives researchers at the University of Georgia evidence to prove species relocation is an effective conservation tool.
Plants & Animals
Nov 2, 2020
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Nearly all Madagascan megafauna—including the famous dodo bird, gorilla-sized lemurs, giant tortoises, and the Elephant Bird, which stood 3 meters tall and weighted close to a half ton—vanished between 1,500 and 500 years ...
Ecology
Oct 19, 2020
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589
A Western Sydney University researcher has contributed to the first global and comprehensive assessment of the world's turtle and tortoise species. The study found half of all 360 turtle and tortoise species worldwide face ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2020
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199
A natural experiment created by an active volcano gives new insight into the long-term negative impacts of human colonisation of tropical forest islands. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society journal, ...
Ecology
Feb 25, 2020
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100
A scientific expedition to the Galapagos Islands has discovered a tortoise with a "strong" genetic link to a presumed-extinct subspecies made famous by the popular Lonesome George, national park officials said Friday.
Plants & Animals
Feb 1, 2020
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A scientific expedition to the Galapagos Islands will spend ten days searching for relatives of two tortoise species believed to be extinct, including those of the archipelago's Lonesome George, park officials said Friday.
Plants & Animals
Jan 25, 2020
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469
"Increase the size, increase the survival" is the premise behind head-starting—raising an at-risk species in captivity until it is large enough to be less vulnerable to predators after release into the wild. But research ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 11, 2019
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A trio of researchers with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, the Hebrew University and Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Maxingstrasse, has found that giant tortoises are not only trainable, but have long memories. In ...
Scientists have observed wild chimpanzees tucking into an unusual snack: tortoises, whose hard shells they crack against tree trunks before scooping out the meat.
Plants & Animals
May 23, 2019
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