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Cylindraspis triserrata Günther, 1873

Domed Mauritius giant tortoise, High-fronted tortoise, Mauritius giant flat-shelled tortoise

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Testudo gadowi Van Denburgh, 1914; Testudo guentheri Gadow, 1894; Testudo leptocnemis Günther, 1875:297; Testudo microtympanum Boulenger, 1891; Testudo schweigeri Gray, 1830; Testudo triserrata Günther, 1873; Geochelone trisserata Gunther, 1873; Testudo schweigeri Gray 1830:3

 

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: early 1700's

IUCN status: Extinct

 

Distribution

Mauritius, Mascarene Islands

 

Biology & Ecology

 

 

Hypodigm

 

 

Media

 

 

References

Original scientific description:

Günther, A. C. L. G. (1873). Preliminary notice of some extinct tortoises from the islands of Rodriguez and Mauritius. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (4)11: 397.

 

Other references:

Arnold, E. N. (1979). Indian Ocean giant tortoises: their systematics and island adaptations. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 286: 127-145.

Arnold, E. N. (1980). Recently extinct reptile populations from Mauritius and Réunion, Indian Ocean. J. Zool. 191: 33-47.

Austin, Jeremy J. and Arnold, E. Nicholas. (2001). Ancient mitochondrial DNA and morphology elucidate an extinct island radiation of Indian Ocean giant tortoises (Cylindraspis). Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 268: 2515-2523.

Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (eds). 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. pp. 378. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Boulenger, G. A. (1891). On some Chelonian Remains preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 59(1): 4-8. [Abstract]

Bour, Roger. (1985 "1984"). Les tortues terrestres géantes des îles de l’océan Indien occidental: données géographiques, taxinomiques et phylogénétiques, pp. 17-76. In: F. de Broin and E. Jiménez-Fuentes (Eds.) Comunicaciones del I Simposium Internacional sobre Quelonios Fósiles, París, Octubre, 1983. Studia Geologica Salmanticensia, Volumen Especial 1 (Studia Palaeocheloniologica I) [1984].

Bour, Roger et al. (2014). Morphology and paleontological exploration (up to 2000) of the extinct tortoises of the Mascarenes Islands, pp. 121-202. In: Gerlach, Justin (ed.). Western Indian Ocean Tortoises: Ecology, Diversity, Evolution, Conservation, Palaeontology. Manchester: Siri Scientific Books.

Burleigh, R. and Arnold, E. N. (1986). Age and Dietary Differences of Recently Extinct Indian Ocean Tortoises (Geochelone s. lat.) Revealed by Carbon Isotope Analysis. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 227(1246): 137-144. [Abstract]

Cheke, Anthony S. and Beentje, Henk. (2016). Citizen animals, dodo mayors – the curious account of a visit to Mauritius in 1632. Phelsuma 24: 1-5.

Cheke, Anthony S. and Bour, Roger. (2014). Unequal struggle – how humans displaced the dominance of tortoises in island ecosystems, pp. 31-120. In: Gerlach, Justin (ed.). Western Indian Ocean Tortoises: Ecology, Diversity, Evolution, Conservation, Palaeontology. Manchester: Siri Scientific Books.

de Boer, Erik J. et al. (2015). A deadly cocktail: How a drought around 4200 cal. yr BP caused mass mortality events at the infamous ‘dodo swamp’ in Mauritius. The Holocene 25(5): 758-771. [Abstract]

Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.

Duméril, A. M. C. and G. Bibron. (1835). Erpétologie Générale ou Histoire Naturelle Complète des Reptiles, Vol. 2. Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris, iv + 680 p.

Florens, F. B. Vincent. (2002). Osteological finds on Trois Mamelles mountain extends the known ecological range of the extinct endemic Mauritian tortoise [i]Cylindraspis[/i] sp. Phelsuma 10: 56-58.

Gadow, H. (1894). On the Remains of some Gigantic Land-Tortoises, and of an extinct Lizard, recently discovered in Mauritius. The Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 13: 313-324. [Abstract]

Gray, J. E. (1830). A Synopsis of the Species of the Class Reptilia. In: Griffith E. and Pidgeon, E. The Class Reptilia arranged by the Baron Cuvier, with specific descriptions. In: Griffith, E. (ed.). The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization, by the Baron Cuvier, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before Noticed. Vol. 9. Reptilia. Supplement. London: Whittaker, Treacher, and Co., 110 pp. [Part 26, published Dec 1830].

Groombridge, B. 1992. Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth’s Living Resources. Report compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Chapman and Hall, London.

Groombridge, B. (ed.). 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Günther, A. (1875). Description of the living and extinct races of gigantic land-tortoises. Parts I. and II. introduction and the tortoises of the Galapagos islands. Phil Trans. Roy. Soc. 165: 251-284.

Günther, Albert Carl Ludwig Gotthilf. (1877). The Gigantic Land-Tortoises (Living and Extinct) in the Collection of the British Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London [1877]: 44, pl. xxii, fig. A.

Haddon, Alfred C. (1880). On the Extinct Land‐Tortoises of Mauritius and Rodriguez. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 15(81): 58-59. [Abstract]

Hume, Julian Pender. (2014). Fossil discoveries in Rodrigues and Mauritius, pp. 203-228. In: Gerlach, Justin (ed.). Western Indian Ocean Tortoises: Ecology, Diversity, Evolution, Conservation, Palaeontology. Manchester: Siri Scientific Books.

Kehlmaier, Christian et al. (2019). Ancient mitogenomics clarifies radiation of extinct Mascarene giant tortoises (Cylindraspis spp.). Scientific Reports 9: 17487.

Kehlmaier, C., Graciá, E., Ali, J.R., Campbell, P.D., Chapman, S.D., Deepak, V., Ihlow, F., Jalil, N.-E., Pierre-Huyet, L., Samonds, K.E., Vences, M., Fritz, U. (2023). Ancient DNA elucidates the lost world of western Indian Ocean giant tortoises and reveals a new species from Madagascar. Science Advances 9(2): eabq2574. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq2574

Regalado, Pedro Galán. (2015). Los Anfibios y Reptiles Extinguidos: Herpetofauna Desaparecida Desde el Año 1500. Monografías de la Universidade da Coruña 155: 1-509.

Rijsdijk, Kenneth F. et al. (2009). Mid-Holocene vertebrate bone Concentration-Lagerstätte on oceanic island Mauritius provides a window into the ecosystem of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus). Quaternary Science Reviews 28: 14-24.

Tirvengadum, D. D. and Bour, R. (1985). Checklist of the herpetofauna of the Mascarene Islands. Atoll. Res. Bull. 292: 49-60.

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 der Sluis, L. G. et al. (In Press, 2014). Combining histology, stable isotope analysis and ZooMS collagen fingerprinting to investigate the taphonomic history and dietary behaviour of extinct giant tortoises from the Mare aux Songes deposit on Mauritius. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. [Abstract]

Van Denburgh, J. (1914). Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the Galapagos Islands, 1905–1906. X. The gigantic land tortoises of the Galapagos Archipelago. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (4)2(1): 203-374.

World Conservation Monitoring Centre. (1996a). Cylindraspis triserrata. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 11 December 2010.

World Conservation Monitoring Centre. (1996b). Cylindraspis triserrata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 1996: e.T6064A12390055. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T6064A12390055.en. Accessed on 14 June 2022.

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