Galapagos Tortoises: Untangling The Evolutionary Threads

Giant tortoises taste good. At least they did to pirates and whalers who had spent months at sea eating the same dry rations day in, day out. Soon after the discovery of the Galapagos Islands in 1535 they became a regular stop-off for hungry crews to stock up on these handy living larders. Over the centuries this pillaging took its toll. Several distinct populations of Galapagos tortoises were wiped out, while others were brought perilously close to extinction. Now, though, researchers have found another consequence of the sailors' taste for tortoise meat. Unwanted tortoises were often dumped on islands far from home, so populations that were well down the path to becoming different species found themselves thrown back together...