Chelonoidis sp. nov. 'Santa Fé'
Santa Fé Island tortoise (proposed)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Geochelone nigra/niger ssp. nov. 'Santa Fé'
The validity of this undescribed (sub)species is highly disputed, however it is recognised by (TEWG et al. 2015).
Conservation Status
Extinct (Ochoa et al., 2026)
Last record: c. 1890 (Pritchard, 1996)
Distribution & Habitat
Santa Fé Island (=Barrington Island), Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Aguilera, Washington Tapia et al. (2020). Santa Fe Island: Return of tortoises via a replacement species, pp. 483-499. In: Gibbs, James P., Cayot, Linda J. and Aguilera, Washington Tapia (eds.). Galapagos Giant Tortoises: A volume in Biodiversity of World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes. Academic Press. [Abstract]
Beer, John. (2015). By and By. Poetry 207(2): 125-127. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44015857
MacFarland, Craig G., Villa, José and Toro, Basilio. (1974). The Galápagos giant tortoises (Geochelone elephantopus) part II: conservation methods. Biological Conservation 6(2): 198-212.
Ochoa, Alexander et al. (2026). Integration of ultra-low coverage whole-genome sequences for reconstructing the evolutionary history of Galapagos giant tortoises. Proc. R. Soc. B 293(2075): 20260103. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.0103
Poulakakis, N. et al. (2012). Unravelling the peculiarities of island life: vicariance, dispersal, and the diversification of the extinct and extant giant Galápagos tortoises. Molecular Ecology 21: 160-173.
Pritchard, Peter Charles Howard. (1996). The Galapagos tortoises: nomenclatural and survival status. Chelonian Research Foundation.
Regalado, Pedro Galán. (2015). Los Anfibios y Reptiles Extinguidos: Herpetofauna Desaparecida Desde el Año 1500. Monografías de la Universidade da Coruña 155: 1-509.
Steadman, David W., Stafford, Thomas W. Jnr., Donahue, Douglas J. and Jull, A. J. Timothy. (1991). Chronology of Holocene vertebrate extinction in the Galápagos Islands. Quaternary Research 36(1): 126-133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(91)90021-V
Swingland, I.R. (1989). Geochelone elephantopus. Galapagos giant tortoises. In: Swingland I.R. and Klemens M.W. (eds.) The conservation biology of tortoises. Occasional Papers of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), No. 5, pp. 24–28. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
Townsend, C. H. (1925). The Galapagos tortoises in their relation to the whaling industry: a study of old logbooks. Zoologica 4(3): 55-135.
Turtle Extinctions Working Group et al. (2015). Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians. Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5: 1-66.
Van Denburgh, J. (1914). The gigantic land tortoises of the Galapagos archipelago. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 42(1): 203-374.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/10117/chelonoidis-sp-santa-giant-tortoise