“Lonesome George” is the name of the world’s rarest living animal, a giant tortoise found in 1971 on an island near South America. Why is he so unusual? Because he is the last living member of his particular group of tortoises. When he dies, this group (1). In order to prevent this, scientists are searching for a female tortoise like him so that he can pass on his genes.
Lonesome George was found on one of the Galapagos Islands, a group of islands about 800 miles off the coast of Ecuador. For a long time, each island in the group had no contact with any of the others and (2), the animals on each island developed independently. The islands are famous because Charles Darwin visited them in 1835 and by studying the animals there got the idea for his theory of evolution. Like the other animals, the tortoises on each island gradually developed their own special characteristics. It is said that the shell of each group has a unique shape.
Unfortunately, since Darwin’s time, the islands have been (3) human activity. Fishermen hunted the tortoises for food and introduced other animals, such as goats, to the islands. These animals ate the plants the tortoises depended on. Three of the original 14 different groups of tortoises have already died out. On his island, Lonesome George was the only member of his subspecies.
Now a group of scientists has begun searching for the female on the other islands with the closest genes to George. To their surprise, they have discovered that those most similar to him do not live nearby. In fact, they live on the islands furthest away. By analyzing the DNA of these tortoises, they hope soon to locate a suitable female and persuade Lonesome George to have some children before it’s too late.
1.
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B.
may evolve into different species
2.
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3.
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