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Chelonoidis

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66-710: Chelonoidis is a genus of turtles in the tortoise family erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1835. They are found in South America and the Galápagos Islands , and formerly had a wide distribution in the West Indies . The multiple subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise ( C. niger ) are among the largest extant terrestrial chelonians. Giant members of the genus, such as Lutz's giant tortoise ( C. lutzae ) were also present in mainland South America and

132-536: A change in the use of coastal resources and advancements in marine technology. The reasons for these changes have not been confirmed; various triggering mechanisms have been theorized such as climate change , the arrival of new people, or the struggle for resources. The South American land mammal age , the Lujanian , corresponds with the late Pleistocene. The Lujanian is a geologic period from 0.8 - 0.11Ma specifically for prehistoric South American fauna. There

198-641: A female spur-thighed tortoise , lived to be about 165 years old. For 38 years, she was carried as a mascot aboard various ships in Britain's Royal Navy . Then in 1892, at age 53, she retired to the grounds of Powderham Castle in Devon . Up to the time of her death in 2004, she was believed to be the United Kingdom's oldest resident. Jonathan , a Seychelles giant tortoise living on the island of St Helena , may be as old as 192 years. DNA analysis of

264-410: A longer, more protruding neck plate than their female counterparts, while in others, the claws are longer on the females. The male plastron is curved inwards to aid reproduction. The easiest way to determine the sex of a tortoise is to look at the tail. The females, as a general rule, have smaller tails, dropped down, whereas the males have much longer tails which are usually pulled up and to the side of

330-453: A more specific term for slow-moving terrestrial species. General American usage agrees; turtle is often a general term; tortoise is used only in reference to terrestrial turtles or, more narrowly, only those members of Testudinidae, the family of modern land tortoises; and terrapin may refer to turtles that are small and live in fresh and brackish water, in particular the diamondback terrapin ( Malaclemys terrapin ). In America, for example,

396-753: A return to glacial conditions until 11.7 ka. Paleoclimatology holds that there was a sequence of stadials and interstadials from about 16 ka until the end of the Pleistocene. These were the Oldest Dryas (stadial), the Bølling oscillation (interstadial), the Older Dryas (stadial), the Allerød oscillation (interstadial) and finally the Younger Dryas. The end of the Younger Dryas marks

462-416: A source of nutrition for the first three to seven days until they have the strength and mobility to find food. Juvenile tortoises often require a different balance of nutrients than adults, so may eat foods which a more mature tortoise would not. For example, the young of a strictly herbivorous species commonly will consume worms or insect larvae for additional protein. The number of concentric rings on

528-576: A true domestic dog have been dated to 14,200 years ago. Domestication first happened in Eurasia but could have been anywhere from Western Europe to East Asia. Domestication of other animals such as cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep did not begin until the Holocene when settled farming communities became established in the Near East. The cat was probably not domesticated before c.  7500 BC at

594-503: Is conducive for preserving fossils . Neanderthal hominins ( Homo neanderthalensis ) inhabited Eurasia until becoming extinct between 40 and 30 ka, towards the end of the Pleistocene and possibly into the early Holocene and were replaced with modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) who emerged from East Africa about 195,000 years ago. Neanderthals co-existed with the Homo sapiens until they died out. In Eurasia, extinction happened throughout

660-435: Is detrimental in herbivorous species, and has been associated with shell deformities and other medical problems. Different tortoise species vary greatly in their nutritional requirements. Communication in tortoises is different from many other reptiles. Because they are restricted by their shell and short limbs, visual communication is not a strong form of communication in tortoises. Tortoises use olfactory cues to determine

726-610: Is due to the lack of chronological information. The resemblance of Late Pleistocene species in Northern Africa to modern animals is the same as in Southern Africa but it's extremely difficult to date when these fauna came into place because of the lack of reliable samples from the mid-Pleistocene. Most of the significant fossil records are from the Maghreb because of its geology which helps to create deep caves which

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792-499: Is evidence of human habitation in mainland Australia , Indonesia , New Guinea and Tasmania from c. 45,000 BC. The finds include rock engravings, stone tools and evidence of cave habitation. In Australia, there are sites which show evidence of pollen records from the Late Pleistocene and they are mostly found in more temperate regions of the continent. Some megafauna decreased in size over time, while others remained

858-545: Is still heavily debated what caused the extinctions. Bison occidentalis and Bison antiquus , an extinct subspecies of the smaller present-day bison, survived the late Pleistocene period, between about 12 and 11 ka ago. Clovis people depended on these bison as their major food source. Earlier kills of camels, horses, and muskoxen found at Wally's beach were dated to 13.1–13.3 ka B.P. Over 50 genera (~ 83%) of megafauna in South and North America went extinct during

924-631: Is used to refer to a larger group of semiaquatic turtles than the restricted meaning in America. Australian usage is different from both American and British usage. Land tortoises are not native to Australia, and traditionally freshwater turtles have been called "tortoises" in Australia. Some Australian experts disapprove of this usage—believing that the term tortoises is "better confined to purely terrestrial animals with very different habits and needs, none of which are found in this country"—and promote

990-524: The Atlantic from Africa to South America in the Oligocene . This crossing was made possible by their ability to float with their heads up and to survive up to six months without food or water. Based on mtDNA analysis, the extant Chelonoidis members can be divided into two lineages, with one containing the red-footed tortoise ( C. carbonarius ) and yellow-footed tortoise ( C. denticulatus ), and

1056-1050: The Bahamas , the Greater Antilles (including Cuba and Hispaniola ), the Lesser Antilles , the Canary Islands , Malta , the Seychelles , the Mascarene Islands (including Mauritius and Reunion ), and Madagascar . Most of these tortoises were wiped out by human arrival. Many of these giant tortoises are not closely related (belonging to different genera such as Megalochelys , Chelonoidis , Centrochelys , Aldabrachelys , Cylindraspis , and Hesperotestudo ), but are thought to have independently evolved large body size through convergent evolution . Giant tortoises are notably absent from Australasia and many south Pacific islands, but

1122-635: The Galápagos giant tortoise , growing to more than 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) in length, whereas others like the Speckled cape tortoise have shells that measure only 6.8 centimetres (2.7 in) long. Several lineages of tortoises have independently evolved very large body sizes in excess of 100 kg, including the Galapagos giant tortoise and the Aldabra giant tortoise . They are usually diurnal animals with tendencies to be crepuscular depending on

1188-727: The Great Lakes in North America. Sea levels fell and two land bridges were temporarily in existence that had significance for human migration : Doggerland , which connected Great Britain to mainland Europe; and the Bering land bridge which joined Alaska to Siberia . The last Ice Age was followed by the Late Glacial Interstadial , a period of global warming to 12.9 ka, and the Younger Dryas ,

1254-693: The Japanese archipelago has been traced to prehistoric times between 40,000 BC and 30,000 BC. The earliest fossils are radiocarbon dated to c. 35,000 BC. An archeological record of Neanderthals has been found in Asia along with records of two other hominin populations, the Denisovans and Homo floresiensis . Japan was once linked to the Asian mainland by land bridges via Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island to

1320-640: The Late Pleistocene , other species such as those on the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas are thought to have been driven to extinction after the first humans arrived on the islands, from 7000 BC onwards. The Bahamian tortoise ( C. alburyorum ) was one of the last-surviving of these species, persisting up to 1170 AD on the Abacos , up to 1200 AD on Grand Turk , and up to 1400 AD on

1386-645: The Middle Caicos , just under a century prior to European colonization of the islands . A 2017 study found that some of these species such as those from Hispaniola were specialists adapted to dry, open habitats such as Hispaniolan dry forests and had a major role in shaping them; following a decrease in the extent of these ecosystems after the end of the Pleistocene , these tortoises were restricted to refugia habitats up until their extinction. A 2021 study identified two distinct genetic lineages within

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1452-535: The Nile Valley as the Sahara was transformed from grassland to desert. The Nazlet Khater skeleton was found in 1980 and has been radiocarbon dated to between 30,360 and 35,100 years ago. Most of the knowledge of the Late Pleistocene is obtained from regions like Morocco , Algeria , Tunisia , some coastal regions of Maghreb , Libya and Egypt . The only issue with interpreting the data from this region

1518-850: The North American land mammal age scale, the Rancholabrean spans the time from c. 240,000 years ago to c. 11,000 years ago. It is named after the Rancho La Brea fossil site in California , characterized by extinct forms of bison in association with other Pleistocene species such as the mammoth . During the Late Pleistocene about 35 genera of megafauna went extinct including species such as mastodons , saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths . Some other species went extinct in North America but not globally. it

1584-603: The Wisconsin glaciation (North America), though technically that began much later. The Last Glacial Maximum was reached during the later millennia of the Würm/Weichselian, estimated between 26 ka and 19 ka when deglaciation began in the Northern Hemisphere. The Würm/Weichselian endured until 16 ka with Northern Europe, including most of Great Britain , covered by an ice sheet. The glaciers reached

1650-405: The carapace and plastron . The plastron of a female tortoise often has a noticeable V-shaped notch below the tail which facilitates passing the eggs. Upon completion of the incubation period, a fully formed hatchling uses an egg tooth to break out of its shell. It digs to the surface of the nest and begins a life of survival on its own. They are hatched with an embryonic egg sac which serves as

1716-461: The genomes of the long-lived tortoises, Lonesome George , the iconic last member of Chelonoidis abingdonii , and the Aldabra giant tortoise Aldabrachelys gigantea led to the detection of lineage-specific variants affecting DNA repair genes that might contribute to their long lifespan. Many species of tortoises are sexually dimorphic , though the differences between males and females vary from species to species. In some species, males have

1782-526: The mammoth , mastodon , and Irish elk became extinct. Upper Paleolithic people also made paintings and engravings on walls. Cave paintings have been found at Lascaux in the Dordogne which may be more than 17,000 years old. These are mainly buffalo , deer , and other animals hunted by humans. Later paintings occur in caves throughout the world, including Altamira , Spain, and in India, Australia, and

1848-421: The 17th century, Francesco Redi performed an experiment that involved removing the brain of a land tortoise, which then proceeded to live six months. Freshwater tortoises, when subjected to the same experiment, continued similarly, but did not live so long. Redi also cut the head off a tortoise entirely, and it lived for 23 days. Tortoises are found from southern North America to southern South America, around

1914-482: The Alps and interglacials (temperate phase). The evidence of the changes in climatic conditions was from fragmentary sequences in formerly glaciated areas in northern Europe . The only domesticated animal in the Pleistocene was the dog , which evolved from the grey wolf into its many modern breeds . It is believed that the grey wolf became associated with hunter-gatherer tribes around 15 Ka. The earliest remains of

1980-564: The Bahaman tortoise, C. alburyorum , but also sometimes found the remains of members of both lineages on the same island, even though the lineages would have only separated with geographic isolation. This indicates that the early inhabitants of the West Indies were successfully transporting the large tortoises across islands, presumably for the purpose of consumption, and thus causing the remains geographically-isolated lineages to co-occur on

2046-506: The Late Pleistocene as part of the Late Pleistocene extinctions , a trend that continued into the Holocene. In palaeoanthropology , the late Pleistocene contains the Upper Palaeolithic stage of human development, including the early human migrations of modern humans outside of Africa, and the extinction of all archaic human species. Paleolithic Epipalaeolithic Mesolithic Neolithic The proposed beginning of

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2112-603: The Late Pleistocene. Some species which went extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene in Southern Africa are the giant warthog , long-horn buffalo, Southern springbok , etc. These species were common because their distribution changed in response to climatic influences on vegetation. Carnivores were more widespread due to their varying habitat requirements. In Egypt , the Late (or Upper) Palaeolithic began sometime after 30,000 BC. People in North Africa had relocated to

2178-491: The Mediterranean basin, across Eurasia to Southeast Asia, in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, and some Pacific islands. They are absent from Australasia . They live in diverse habitats, including deserts, arid grasslands, and scrub to wet evergreen forests, and from sea level to mountains. Most species, however, occupy semiarid habitats. Many large islands are or were characterized by species of giant tortoises . Part of

2244-673: The Pleistocene but those that happened during the Later Pleistocene were of megafauna and there were no replacements for the extinct species. Some Molluscan species went extinct but not on the same scale as the mammals living during the time. Some examples of species which extinct without replacements include the Straight-tusked elephant ( Palaeoloxodon antiquus ), Giant deer ( Megaloceros giganteus ), cave bear ( Ursus spelaeus ) and woolly rhinoceros ( Coelodonta antiquitatis ). Several large mammalian species including

2310-482: The Pleistocene. most mega mammals (>1000kg) and large mammals (>40kg) went extinct by the end of the Late Pleistocene. During this period there was a major cooling event called the Younger Dryas and the Clovis culture of capturing game became more prominent. Diverse factors such as climate change may have triggered this extinction but it's still in debate what the major factors were. The Late Pleistocene saw

2376-680: The Sahara. Magdalenian hunter-gatherers were widespread in western Europe about 20 -12.500 cal BP years ago until the end of the Pleistocene. An example of this is the antler-working done by the human groups who lived in the Santimamine cave in the Magdalenian. They invented the earliest known harpoons using reindeer horn. Climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene in Eurasia were predominantly cold with glaciation events happening in northern Europe , northwest Siberia and

2442-500: The West Indies during the Pleistocene , and the latter into the Holocene . They were formerly assigned to Geochelone , but a 2006 genetic analysis indicated that they were actually most closely related to hingeback tortoises . However, a more recent genetic analysis of mtDNA has found that they are actually most closely related to the lineage containing Centrochelys and Geochelone . Their ancestors apparently floated across

2508-523: The ambient temperatures. They are generally reclusive animals. Tortoises are the longest-living land animals in the world, although the longest-living species of tortoise is a matter of debate. Galápagos tortoises are noted to live over 150 years, but an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita may have lived an estimated 255 years. In general, most tortoise species can live 80–150 years. Tortoises are placid and slow-moving, with an average walking speed of 0.2–0.5 km/h. Differences exist in usage of

2574-420: The average incubation period are between 100 and 160.0 days. Egg-laying typically occurs at night, after which the mother tortoise covers her clutch with sand, soil, and organic material. The eggs are left unattended, and depending on the species, take from 60 to 120 days to incubate. The size of the egg depends on the size of the mother and can be estimated by examining the width of the cloacal opening between

2640-470: The boundary between the Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs. Hominids in all parts of the world were still culturally and technologically in the Palaeolithic (Old Stone) Age . Tools and weapons were basic stone or wooden implements. Nomadic tribes followed moving herds. Non-nomadics acquired their food by gathering and hunting . Its present physical geography and climate have changed over time caused by

2706-490: The brief Last Interglacial warm period (~130–115,000 years ago), where temperatures were comparable to or warmer than the Holocene, the Late Pleistocene was dominated by the cool Last Glacial Period , with temperatures gradually lowering throughout the period, reaching their lowest during the Last Glacial Maximum around 26-20,000 years ago. Most of the world's large ( megafaunal ) animals became extinct during

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2772-488: The carapace, much like the cross-section of a tree , can sometimes give a clue to how old the animal is, but, since the growth depends highly on the accessibility of food and water, a tortoise that has access to plenty of forage (or is regularly fed by its owner) with no seasonal variation will have no noticeable rings. Moreover, some tortoises grow more than one ring per season, and in some others, due to wear, some rings are no longer visible. Tortoises generally have one of

2838-606: The care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965, at the age of 188. The Alipore Zoo in India was the home to Adwaita , which zoo officials claimed was the oldest living animal until its death on March 23, 2006. Adwaita (also spelled Addwaita) was an Aldabra giant tortoise brought to India by Lord Wellesley, who handed it over to the Alipur Zoological Gardens in 1875 when

2904-446: The common terms turtle , tortoise, and terrapin , depending on the variety of English being used; usage is inconsistent and contradictory. These terms are common names and do not reflect precise biological or taxonomic distinctions. The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists uses "turtle" to describe all species of the order Testudines, regardless of whether they are land-dwelling or sea-dwelling, and uses "tortoise" as

2970-699: The distantly related meiolaniid turtles are thought to have filled the same niche. Giant tortoises are also known from the Oligocene - Pliocene of mainland North America , South America , Europe , Asia , and Africa , but are all now extinct, which is also attributed to human activity. Tortoises are generally considered to be strict herbivores , feeding on grasses, weeds, leafy greens, flowers, and some fruits. However, hunting and eating of birds has been observed on occasion. Pet tortoises typically require diets based on wild grasses, weeds, leafy greens and certain flowers. Certain species consume worms or insects and carrion in their normal habitats. Too much protein

3036-504: The dominant large herbivores on many islands due to their low metabolic rate and reduced need for fresh water compared to mammals. Today there are only two living species of giant tortoises, the Aldabra giant tortoise on Aldabra Atoll and the dozen subspecies of Galapagos giant tortoise found on the Galapagos Islands . However, until recently giant tortoises could be found on nearly every major island group, including

3102-682: The earliest, again in the Near East . A butchered brown bear patella found in Alice and Gwendoline Cave in County Clare and dated to 10,860 to 10,641 BC indicates the first known human activity in Ireland . The topography and geography of Asia were subject to frequent changes such as the creation of land bridges when sea levels dropped which helped with the expansion and migration of human populations . The first human habitation in

3168-676: The extent of divergence among the species in the Galápagos and Bahamian Chelonoidis radiations may have been overestimated, and supported subsuming many of the species in both complexes to being subspecies of two parent species; C. alburyorum for the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands , and C. niger for the Galápagos . This was followed by the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group and the Reptile Database in 2021. The names of several species names in

3234-408: The family Testudinidae of the order Testudines ( Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles , tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other members of the suborder Cryptodira , they retract their necks and heads directly backward into the shell to protect them. Tortoises can vary in size with some species, such as

3300-400: The genus have often been misspelled, beginning in the 1980s when Chelonoidis was elevated to genus and mistakenly treated as feminine, an error recognized and fixed in 2017. Presently, Chelonoidis are distributed throughout most of South America , as well as most of the Galápagos ; the genus extended north into Central America during the Pleistocene and most of the West Indies up to

3366-614: The late Holocene . C. carbonarius and C. denticulatus are presently found on some of the Lesser Antillean islands, but the provenance of these individuals is unknown, and they could have been introduced by Amerindians during pre-Columbian times. In prehistoric times, a large insular radiation of giant Chelonoidis existed on many West Indian islands, including the Bahamas , Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles. While some species such as those on Curaçao , Anguilla , and Barbados are thought to have gone extinct during

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3432-770: The late Pleistocene is the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period (PGP) 126 ka when the Riß glaciation (Alpine) was being succeeded by the Eemian (Riß-Würm) interglacial period . The Riß-Würm ended 115 ka with the onset of the Last Glacial Period (LGP) which is known in Europe as the Würm (Alpine) or Devensian (Great Britain) or Weichselian glaciation (northern Europe); these are broadly equated with

3498-552: The longest lifespans of any animal, and some individuals are known to have lived longer than 150 years. Because of this, they symbolize longevity in some cultures, such as Chinese culture . The oldest tortoise ever recorded, and one of the oldest individual animals ever recorded, was Tu'i Malila , which was presented to the Tongan royal family by the British explorer James Cook shortly after its birth in 1777. Tu'i Malila remained in

3564-416: The members of the genus Terrapene dwell on land, yet are referred to as box turtles rather than tortoises. British usage, by contrast, tends not to use "turtle" as a generic term for all members of the order, and also applies the term "tortoises" broadly to all land-dwelling members of the order Testudines, regardless of whether they are actually members of the family Testudinidae. In Britain, terrapin

3630-408: The movement of tectonic plates and volcanoes but glacial cycles and sea level variation have a more significant effect on the vertebrate communities during the Late Pleistocene. The Late Pleistocene was the time when most animals evolved to resemble modern-day animals and they managed to live through the Late mid-Pleistocene since there were no extinction events of megafauna until the end of

3696-503: The north but was unconnected at this time when the main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu , Kyushu and Shikoku were all separate entities. Human migrations happened during this time with people coming in from Eurasia . From about 28 ka, there were migrations across the Bering land bridge from Siberia to Alaska . The people became the Native Americans . It is believed that the original tribes subsequently moved down to Central and South America under pressure from later migrations. In

3762-459: The other containing the Chaco tortoise ( C. chilensis ) and the Galapagos tortoises ( C. niger ). The now-extinct West Indian radiation is thought to group with the Chaco and Galapagos tortoises but is significantly basal to both, and was a rather evolutionary distinct lineage, having diverged well before any of the modern species in the genus did and only 7 mya after the divergence of Chelonoidis from African tortoises. A 2021 study found that

3828-425: The proposed Tarantian Age of the geologic time scale , preceded by the officially ratified Chibanian (commonly known as the Middle Pleistocene). The beginning of the Late Pleistocene is the transition between the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and the beginning of the Last Interglacial around 130,000 years ago (corresponding with the beginning of Marine Isotope Stage 5 ). The Late Pleistocene ends with

3894-434: The rear shell. The brain of a tortoise is extremely small. Red-footed tortoises, from Central and South America, do not have an area in the brain called the hippocampus , which relates to emotion, learning, memory and spatial navigation. Studies have shown that red-footed tortoises may rely on an area of the brain called the medial cortex for emotional actions, an area that humans use for actions such as decision making. In

3960-403: The reason for this is that tortoises are good at oceanic dispersal . Despite being unable to swim, tortoises are able to survive long periods adrift at sea because they can survive months without food or fresh water. Tortoises have been known to survive oceanic dispersals of more than 740 km. Once on islands tortoises faced few predators or competitors and could grow to large sizes and become

4026-792: The same islands. Note that the genus name Chelonoidis is masculine under the rules of the ICZN , and adjectival species names must agree in gender; the species names below are displayed in keeping with this rule, and may differ from how they commonly appear in publications. Listed alphabetically: Relationships of the genus, after Kehlmaier et al, 2017 and 2021. Chelonoidis carbonarius (red-footed tortoise) Chelonoidis denticulatus (yellow-footed tortoise) † Chelonoidis alburyorum (Bahamian giant tortoise) Chelonoidis chilensis (Chaco tortoise) Chelonoidis niger ( Galápagos tortoise ) Listed alphabetically: Listed alphabetically: Tortoise Tortoises ( / ˈ t ɔːr t ə s . ɪ z / TOR -təs-iz ) are reptiles of

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4092-888: The sex of other tortoises so that they can find a potential mate. Tactile communication is important in tortoises during combat and courtship. In both combat and courtship, tortoises use ramming to communicate with other individuals. This species list largely follows Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (2021) and the Turtle Extinctions Working Group (2015). Family Testudinidae Batsch 1788 A molecular phylogeny of tortoises, following Le et al. (2006: 525): Ergilemys Manouria Gopherus Indotestudo Testudo Malacochersus Centrochelys sulcata Geochelone platynota Geochelone elegans Chersina Homopus Stigmochelys Psammobates Aldabrachelys Pyxis Astrochelys radiata Astrochelys yniphora Kinixys Chelonoidis A separate phylogeny via mtDNA analysis

4158-453: The termination of the Younger Dryas , some 11,700 years ago when the Holocene Epoch began. The term Upper Pleistocene is currently in use as a provisional or "quasi-formal" designation by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Although the three oldest ages of the Pleistocene (the Gelasian , the Calabrian and the Chibanian ) have been officially defined, the late Pleistocene has yet to be formally defined. Following

4224-410: The use of the term "freshwater turtle" to describe Australia's primarily aquatic members of the order Testudines because it avoids misleading use of the word "tortoise" and also is a useful distinction from marine turtles. Most species of tortoises lay small clutch sizes, seldom exceeding 20 eggs, and many species have clutch sizes of only 1–2 eggs. Incubation is characteristically long in most species,

4290-500: The zoo was set up. West Bengal officials said records showed Adwaita was at least 150 years old, but other evidence pointed to 250. Adwaita was said to be the pet of Robert Clive . Harriet was a resident at the Australia Zoo in Queensland from 1987 to her death in 2006; she was believed to have been brought to England by Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle and then on to Australia by John Clements Wickham . Harriet died on June 23, 2006, just shy of her 176th birthday. Timothy ,

4356-475: Was found by Kehlmaier et al. (2021): Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy , also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently defined as the time between c. 129,000 and c. 11,700 years ago. The late Pleistocene equates to

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