Abstract
Lonesome George’s enclosure is a grand affair, clearly designed for the crème de la tortoise crème. He (and his female co-habitees) have free rein over a comfortable area of the research station. There is plenty of vegetation in which George can find the privacy he evidently seeks, tree-like cacti, a shelter which he uses during the hot season and a large pool wherein he is free to bathe (should he wish to venture out into the open). And at some distance, his fans — the tourists — skirt respectfully around. They peer into the undergrowth, their cameras poised should they be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the world’s most famous giant tortoise.
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Notes and sources
George’s feeding routine: Roslyn Cameron, personal communication; Joe Flanagan, personal communication; see also ‘The story of Lonesome George’: www.darwinfoundation.org/Restoring/george.html
’such big tortoises that each could carry a man on top of himself’: de Berlanga (1535)
Debate surrounding tortoise origins: Larson (2001)
Beebe’s experiments with the Duncan Island tortoise: Beebe (1923, 1924)
‘In spite of frequent slipping it kept obstinately ahead …’: Beebe (1924)
‘After we had handled it a few times …’: Beebe (1924)
‘When placed in the water alongside the ship …’: Beebe (1923)
‘I could see the throat vibrate in breathing …’: Beebe (1924)
‘A week later this tortoise died without warning’: Beebe (1924)
Albert Günther’s early ideas about tortoise origins: Günther (1875)
George Baur’s thinking on tortoise origins: Baur (1889, 1890, 1891a, 1891b)
‘The Galápagos originated through subsidence …’: Baur (1891a)
‘All hands are anxious to leave as soon as possible …’: see Fritts and Fritts (1982)
‘They would occasionally stick their heads out of water …’: see Fritts and Fritts (1982)
California Academy lose and then recover two tortoises from the ocean: see Fritts and Fritts (1982)
‘When they drift on island shores …’: Van Denburgh (1914)
‘We must rather adopt the view that the islands …’: Van Denburgh (1914)
‘may arrive, after a passage of several weeks, at the bay of an island …’: Lyell (1830)
Colnett’s observation of driftwood: Colnett (1798)
‘driftwood, not the growth of these islands …’: Fitzroy (1839)
‘the seeds of 14/100 plants of any country …’: Darwin (1859)
‘I do not deny that there are many and grave difficulties …’: Darwin (1859)
‘I have not found a single instance …’: Darwin (1859)
Mayotte island frogs: Vences et al. (2003)
‘I am in perfect agreement with Van Denburgh…’: Beebe (1924)
‘It is pertinent to inquire, why was it so little used?’: Townsend (1925a)
‘it is inconceivable that various forms of living flotsam …’: Townsend (1925a)
‘The ancestry of the island tortoises …’: Townsend (1925a)
Yale analysis of tortoise origins: Caccone et al. (1999); Adalgisia Caccone, personal communication
Dodo weight: Maddox (1993)
Elephant bird size: Line (1994)
Australian tiger snakes: Keogh et al. (2005); Scott Keogh, personal communication
Haast’s eagle: Bunce et al. (2005)
Goliath the giant tortoise: Gerlach (1998); Greg Moss, personal communication
The case for floating giant tortoises: Pritchard (1979)
Timeframe of giant tortoise evolution: Caccone et al. (1999); Beheregaray et al. (2004)
Drowned islands: Christie et al. (1992)
Iguana evolution: Wyles and Sarich (1984); Rassmann (1997)
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© 2010 Henry Nicholls
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Nicholls, H. (2010). The Origin of a Species. In: Lonesome George. Macmillan Science. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09745-3_3
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