Cylindraspis
| Cylindraspis | ||||||||||||
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Skull of a Cylindraspis species from Mauritius . |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| ? until Holocene | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cylindraspis | ||||||||||||
| Fitzinger , 1835 |
Cylindraspis is a genus of extinct giant tortoises on the Mascarene archipelago. When these turtles were first discovered, the Mascarene Islands had very large turtle populations . After the beginning of human settlement, these were heavily used and possibly eradicated as a result. Other additional possible reasons would be introduced rats or predators .
The shell of the giant turtles of the Mascarene was partially receded. This is certainly due on the one hand to the greater distance to the mainland, which allowed a longer independent evolution than on the Seychelles , and on the other hand to the fact that these islands were free of predators and thus the tank was unnecessary.
Species list
There were the following five species of Cylindraspis:
- † Cylindraspis indica , Réunion giant tortoise , from Réunion
- † Cylindraspis inepta , Mauritius saddleback giant tortoise , from Mauritius
- † Cylindraspis peltastes , Rodrigues giant tortoise , from Rodrigues
- † Cylindraspis triserrata , Mauritius giant tortoise , from Mauritius
- † Cylindraspis vosmaeri , Rodrigues saddleback giant tortoise , from Rodrigues
gallery
Cylindraspis indica
Skull of Cylindraspis inepta
Cylindraspis peltastes
Skull of Cylindraspis triserrata
Cylindraspis vosmaeri
Skull of three species of Cylindraspis
Cylindraspis vosmaeri
Drawing of a herd of Cylindraspis vosmaeri on Rodrigues
Drawing from 1601 with two Mauritius species on the left
Dutch sailors riding a Mauritius giant domed tortoise in 1598
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literature
- Jeremy J. Austin, E. Nicholas Arnold: Ancient mitochondrial DNA and morphology elucidate an extinct island radiation of Indian Ocean giant tortoises (Cylindraspis). In: Proceedings of the Royal Society. Series B: Biological Sciences. Vol. 268, No. 1485, 2001, ISSN 0950-1193 , pp. 2515-2523, doi : 10.1098 / rspb 2001.1825 .
