Abstract
Since 1877 it has been assumed that human exploitation led to the extinction of all Indian Ocean giant tortoises except for the Aldabran Dipsochelys dussumieri. A taxonomic review in 1998 proposed that two further species survived in captivity. Some recent molecular studies question the validity of these taxa. All available evidence is re-examined in a discussion of the identity of the Seychelles giant tortoises.
Morphological data identifies three living morphotypes (D. dussumieri, D. arnoldi and D. hololissa), data on wild and captive growth distinguishes these from the results of abnormal growth. Molecular data is less clear cut with conflicts between different studies. RAPDs identify the morphotypes although microsatellites identify very little population structuring. Different mtDNA genes conflict, with ND4 sequences relating to the different morphotypes but cytochrome b failing to do so.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Austen, J. J. and Arnold, E. N., 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.
Austen, J. J., Arnold, E. N. and Bour, R., 2003, Was there a second adaptive radiation of giant tortoises in the Indian Ocean? Mol. Evol. 12:1396–1402.
Beerli, P., 2002, MIGRATE. Version 1.5. [http://evolution.geneticswashington.edu/lamarc.html]
Bowie, R. C. K., 2003, Birds, molecules, and evolutionary patterns among Africa’s islands in the sky, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.
Gerlach, J., 1999, Distinctive neural bones in Dipsochelys giant tortoises, J. Morphol. 240:33–38.
Gerlach, J., 2004a, Giant Tortoises of the Indian Ocean, Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main.
Gerlach, J., 2004b, Effects of diet on the systematic utility of the tortoise carapace, Afr. J. Herpetol. 53:77–85.
Gerlach, J., and Bour, R., 2003, Morphology of hatchling Dipsochelys giant tortoises, Radiata 12:11–20.
Gerlach, J., and Canning, L., 1998a, Taxonomy of Indian Ocean giant tortoises (Dipsochelys), Chel. Cons. & Biol. 3:3–19.
Gerlach, J., and Canning, L., 1998b, Identification of Seychelles giant tortoises, Chel. Cons. & Biol. 3:133–135.
Honda, M., Yasukawa, Y., Hirayama, R., and Ota, H., 2002, Phylogenetic relationships of the Asian box turtles of the genus Cuora sensu lato (Reptilia: Bataguridae) inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences, Zool. Sci. 19:1305–1312.
Kuly, A. C. van der, Ballasina, D. L. P., Dekker, J. T., Maas, J., Willemsen, R. E. and Goudsmit, J., 2002, Phylogenetic relationships among the species of the genus Testudo (Testudinea: Teastudinidae) inferred from mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequences, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 22:174–183.
Lamb, T., Lydeard, C., Walker, R. B., and Gibbons, J. W. 1994, Molecular systematics of map turtles (Graptemys), Syst. Biol. 43: 543–559.
Macey, J. R., Papenfuss, T. J., Kuehl, J. V., Fourcade, H. M., and Boore, J. L., 2004, Phylogenetic relationships among amphisbaenian reptiles based on complete mitochondrial genomic sequences, Mol. Phyl. Evol. 33:22–31.
Neigel, J. E., 2002, Is FST obsolete? Conserv. Gene. 3:167–173.
Omoto, K., Katoh, T., Chichvarkhin., A., and Yagi, T., 2004, Molecular systematics and evolution of the “Apollo” butterflies of the genus Parnassius (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, Gene. 326:141–7.
Paetkau, D., Calvert, W., Stirling, I., and Strobeck, C., 1995, Microsatellite analysis of population structure in Canadian polar bears, Mol Ecol. 4:347–354.
Palkovacs, E. P., Maschner, M., Ciofi, C., Gerlach, J., and Caccone, A., 2003, Are the native giant tortoises from the Seychelles really extinct? Mol. Ecol. 12:1403–1414.
Radtkey, R. R., 1996, Adaptive radiation of day-geckoes (Phelsuma) in the Seychelles Archipelago: a phylogenetic analysis, Evolution 50:604–623.
Stuart, B. L., and Parnham, J. F., 2004, Molecular phylogeny of the critically endangered Indochinese box turtle (Cuora galbinifrons), Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 31:164–177.
Whitlock, M. C., and McCauley, D. E., 1999, Indirect measures of gene flow and migration: Fst≠1/(4Nm +1), Heredity 82:117–125.
Wilson, P. J., Grewal, S. K., Lawford, I. D., Heal, J.N.M., Granacki, A. D., Pennock, D., Theberge, J. B., Theberge, M. T., Voigt, D. R., Waddell, W., Chambers, R. E., Paquet, P. C., Goulet, G., Cluff, D., and White, B. N., 2000, DNA profiles of the eastern Canadian wolf and the red wolf provide evidence for a common evolutionary history independent of the gray wolf, Can. J. Zool. 78:2156–2166.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gerlach, J. (2005). Interpreting Morphological and Molecular Data on Indian Ocean Giant Tortoises. In: African Biodiversity. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-24320-8_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-24320-8_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-24315-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-24320-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)