Domed Rodrigues giant tortoise

Domed Rodrigues giant tortoise
Illustration from circa 1770 by Jossigny
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Testudinidae
Genus:	Cylindraspis
Species:	C. peltastes
Binomial name
Cylindraspis peltastes Dumeril & Bibron, 1835
Synonyms
Testudo rotunda Latreille, 1801 Chersine rotunda Merrem, 1820 Testudo peltastes Duméril & Bibron, 1835 Geochelone (Geochelone) rotunda Fitzinger, 1835 Geochelone peltastes Pritchard, 1967 Cylindraspis peltastes Bour, 1980

The domed Rodrigues giant tortoise (Cylindraspis peltastes) was a species of giant tortoises in the Testudinidae family. It was endemic to Rodrigues. It appears to have become extinct around 1800.

Description

1707 illustration showing a settlement in Rodrigues, with tortoises, rats, crabs, a Rodrigues solitaire and a lizard on a palm trunk. The tortoises are most likely the domed Rodrigues giant tortoise.

The domed Rodrigues tortoise was one of the smallest of the giant tortoises of the Indian Ocean, reaching a length of just over 40 cm and an estimated weight of around 12 kg.

A low grazer of grasses, it shared Rodrigues Island with its much larger relative, the saddle-backed Rodrigues giant tortoise, which browsed the taller vegetation. Both species were descended from an ancestral species on Mauritius (an ancestor of Cylindraspis inepta), which colonised Rodrigues by sea many millions of years ago, and then differentiated into the two Rodrigues species.

Ecology and extinction

At the time of the arrival of human settlers, dense tortoise herds of many thousands were reported on Rodrigues. Like many island species, they were reported to have been friendly and unafraid of humans. However, in the ensuing years, massive harvesting and exporting for food, as well as the introduction of invasive alien species, rapidly exterminated the tortoises. Hundreds of thousands were loaded into ships' holds for food, or to be transported to Mauritius where they were burnt for fat & oil.

A surviving tortoise was reported on Rodrigues in 1795, at the bottom of a ravine. As late as 1802, there is mention of survivors reportedly being killed in the large fires used to clear the island's vegetation for agriculture.

It has subsequently been discovered that the browsing herds of tortoises filled an essential role in the island's ecosystem and the regeneration of its forests. In recognition of this fact, measures have been undertaken to introduce replacements, in the form of similar species of tortoises from other parts of the world, to assist in the rebuilding of Rodrigues' devastated environment. The replacement species for the domed Rodrigues tortoise was chosen to be the radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) of Madagascar, which is similar in size and habit.

See also

• Turtles portal