Madkins007 said:If you like this sort of science stuff, read on. If you are not so interested in this stuff, you may want to skip this!
Kind of going on a side trip from the initial purpose of this tread, but the report that Mike Pingleton mentioned (Le, Minh, and C.J. Raxworthy, W. P. McCord, L, Mertz. 2006. A molecular phylogeny of tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40 (2006) pp. 517–531.) has some interesting things in it that reinforces ideas that have been suggested elsewhere.
For a long time, the theory was that Red-foots and other South American tortoises came from the US, and are probably related to the Gopher Tortoises.
A more recent theory had them come from Africa, like several monkey species and Guinea pigs. The DNA and other research discussed in this article suggests that not only is this the case, but based on DNA, Red-foots and other SA tortoises and Hinge-backs are almost sisters! They seem to be more closely related to each other than to other African species.
Almost equally interesting, although maybe not to this thread, is that the Gophers and Burmese Tortoises are closely related as well, using the same research.
Forgive me my excitement- I just think this stuff is so cool!
cdmay said:Animals that were thought to be identical with different DNA, animals thought to be very different with identical DNA, etc. I was at a talk by Joseph Collins where he talked a lot about these snakes and the work going into it- it was fascinating!