Kingdom Animalia Class Sauropsida Family Cryptodira Rank Species | Phylum Chordata Order Testudines Subfamily Testudinoidea | |
Similar Geochelone burchardi, Gallotia goliath, Gran Canaria giant rat, Tenerife giant rat, Canariomys | ||
The Gran Canaria giant tortoise (Geochelone vulcanica) is an extinct species of cryptodira turtle in the family Testudinidae endemic to the island of Gran Canaria.
Characteristics
This is one of the two described species of giant tortoises that inhabited the Canary Islands from the Miocene to the upper Pleistocene. The other species is G. burchardi, from the island of Tenerife.
G. vulcanica was described by López-Jurado & Mateo in 1993. It is believed that the ancestors of these two species of giant tortoises reached the Canary Islands from North Africa. The majority of G. vulcanica fossils are of eggs and nests ranging in age from the Miocene until Pliocene. Bones and shells are known from the Miocene until the Upper Pleistocene. The maximum shell length is up to 61 centimeters, make it slightly smaller than G. burchardi, which had a shell length range of 65 to 94 cm.
Fossilized tortoise eggs have been found in the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura; however, these eggs have not yet been properly described or named. The species of Fuerteventura has been linked to G. burchardi, but this identification is uncertain, and has been challenged.