Galapagos Islands - Artensterben

San-Cristobal-Riesenschildkröte (Chelonoidis chathamensis)

Ancient DNA reveals lost diversity: Distinct lineages of Galápagos giant tortoises once lived on San Cristóbal and Santa Fe but are now extinct. Image: Depositphotos (partnership)

News

1. September 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Genetic Study Confirms Two Additional Extinct Lineages of Galápagos Giant Tortoises

How many species of Galápagos giant tortoises are there, exactly? There is probably no simple answer to this question. On the archipelago’s different islands and volcanoes, separate populations evolved, some of which differ markedly in body shape, behavior, and genetic makeup. One classification system commonly used today groups them as

Tokara-Laubsänger / Tokara leaf warbler (Phylloscopus tokaraensis)

A singing male Tokara leaf warbler (Phylloscopus tokaraensis). The species is restricted to a few islands of Japan's Tokara Archipelago south of Kyushu. Such island endemics often occupy only very small habitats and are therefore especially vulnerable to environmental change. Image: Per Alström, Uppsala University, CC BY, via EurekAlert!

News

28. April 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Hidden diversity: Four newly recognized bird species from 2026

Even today, new bird species are still being discovered and described, although birds are among the comparatively well-studied animal groups. In many cases, however, these are not completely unknown animals, but species that were overlooked or misclassified for a long time. Only modern methods such as genetic analyses and bioacoustic

Illustration of the Floreana giant tortoise — once one of the most distinctive giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, today probably extinct in its original form.

Reptiles

16. March 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Floreana giant tortoise: From extinction to return

A subspecies of the Galapagos tortoise When the Floreana giant tortoise was still alive, it was part of the extraordinary tortoise fauna of the Galapagos Islands. Hardly anywhere else on Earth did a comparable diversity of giant land tortoises evolve—adapted to different islands, volcanoes, climate zones, and food resources. Today,

galapagos-reisratte / verwandte der darwin-reisratte

The rice rat subspecies Aegialomys galapagoensis galapagoensis (pictured), which was once native to the Galápagos island of San Cristóbal, is extinct, as is the Darwin's Galápagos mouse from Santa Cruz. (© Richard Owen 1838, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

6. April 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Darwin’s Galápagos Mouse

The name darwini seems appropriate The first rodent native to the Galápagos Islands was collected by the naturalist Charles Darwin on San Cristóbal in 1835: Mus galapagoensis. Seven further species of endemic rodents were subsequently discovered on four other islands of the Galápagos Archipelago. At least four of these species

galapagos-riesenratte Megaoryzomys curioi

Mammals

7. October 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Galápagos Giant Rat

Its size was due to island gigantism A living Galápagos giant rat was never sighted or collected. Jochen Niethammer described the mouse-like rodent from the group of New World rats and mice in 1964 on the basis of three bone fragments found in a cave on Santa Cruz. Later, further