Chelonoidis alburyorum

Chelonoidis alburyorum Temporal range: late Pleistocene - Holocene
Conservation status
Extinct (~1400 CE)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Testudinidae
Genus:	Chelonoidis
Species:	†C. alburyorum
Binomial name
†Chelonoidis alburyorum Franz & Franz, 2009

Chelonoidis alburyorum is an extinct species of giant tortoise that lived in the Lucayan Archipelago (including The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands) from the Late Pleistocene to around 1400 CE.^[1] The species was discovered and described by Richard Franz and Shelley E. Franz, the findings being published in 2009.^[2]

Name

The specific epithet, alburyorum, is in honor of Bahamian naturalist Nancy Ann Albury.

Fossil

The shell of C. alburyorum was 47 cm (19 inches) in length. Fossils of the species were discovered in Sawmill Sink, a blue hole. Other sites where C. alburyorum fossils have been found include cave systems and an inland deep blue sink hole.^[3]

Extinction

C. alburyorum was the last-surviving of the West Indian Chelonoidis, persisting up to 1170 CE on the Abacos, up to 1200 CE on Grand Turk, and up to 1400 CE on the Middle Caicos, just under a century prior to European colonization of the islands.^[3][4]

References

1. "Florida Museum". Florida Museum. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
2. "Fossilworks: Chelonoidis alburyorum". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
3. Kehlmaier, Christian; Barlow, Axel; Hastings, Alexander K.; Vamberger, Melita; Paijmans, Johanna L. A.; Steadman, David W.; Albury, Nancy A.; Franz, Richard; Hofreiter, Michael; Fritz, Uwe (11 January 2017). "Tropical ancient DNA reveals relationships of the extinct Bahamian giant tortoise Chelonoidis alburyorum". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 284 (1846): 20162235. doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2235. PMC 5247498. PMID 28077774.
4. Turtle Extinctions Working Group (Rhodin, A.G.J., Thomson, S., Georgalis, G., Karl, H.-V., Danilov, I.G., Takahashi, A., de la Fuente, M.S., Bourque, J.R., Delfino, M., Bour, R., Iverson, J.B., Shaffer, H.B., and van Dijk, P.P.). 2015. Turtles and tortoises of the world during the rise and global spread of humanity: first checklist and review of extinct Pleistocene and Holocene chelonians. Archived 2019-07-18 at the Wayback Machine Chelonian Research Monographs 5(8) doi:10.3854/crm.5.000e.fossil.checklist.v1.2015