Genetic traces of a supposedly extinct giant tortoise species have been found in living hybrids on the Galapagos island of Isabela. A few pure Chelonoidis elephantopus almost certainly still exist, hidden in the island's volcanic redoubts. The hybrids have so much C. elephantopus DNA that scientists say careful breeding could resurrect the tragically vanished behemoths.
At the beginning of the 16th century, before humans arrived, an estimated 250,000 giant tortoises representing 15 different species lived in the Galapagos. Once fully grown, the tortoises had no natural predators - except people.
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