Lonesome George is not alone among Galápagos tortoises

The loss of biological diversity continues at an astounding rate, recently punctuated by the reported extinction of the Baiji or Yangtze River Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) [1]. The conservation landscape is dotted with similarly charismatic species that have become flagships for protection because of their increasing rarity. Although a miniscule fraction of biological diversity is at risk, flagship species effectively demonstrate the critical status of an ever-increasing number of taxa worldwide, potentially justifying the disproportionate amount of conservation resources directed towards their protection. Lonesome George, “the rarest living creature” according to the Guinness World Records, is perhaps the most renowned. The apparent sole survivor of the Geochelone abingdoni species of giant Galápagos tortoises from Pinta Island, Lonesome George is a potent conservation icon with much publicity surrounding the search for a mate [2,3]. Here, we report finding an individual of Pinta ancestry in a population on Volcano Wolf on neighboring Isabela Island. Volcano Wolf harbors two populations, Puerto Bravo (PBR) and Piedras Blancas (PBL), of G. becki, one of the eleven extant species of Galápagos tortoises (Figure 1A) [4,5] (see Supplemental data available on-line with this issue for more details of the taxonomic history). Unlike other species that exhibit distinctive PBR