Joseph Richard Slevin
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Joseph Richard Slevin was an American herpetologist and the second curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences, with which he was affiliated for over 50 years. He collected reptile an
Slevin studying reptile specimens in 1953
A Galápagos tortoise specimen (Chelonoidis nigra vicina) collected by Slevin on Isabela Island in 1906
Galápagos tortoise
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The Galápagos tortoise, also called the Galápagos giant tortoise, is a very large species of tortoise in the genus Chelonoidis. The species comprises 15 subspecies. It is the largest living species of
Joseph Richard Slevin
…mollusks, insects, birds, mammals, and reptiles, and, as Van Denburgh wrote, "to spare no effort to secure specimens or remains of those races of the gigantic land tortoises which long had been thought extinct." The voyage made brief stops at islands off of Baja California and the islands of San Benedicto, Socorro, Clipperton…
Galapagos giant tortoise Geochelone elephantopus
Engraving of giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands, from "The Royal Natural History" (1896).
C. n. abingdonii Lonesome George at the Charles Darwin Research Station, in 2006
Intermediate (C. n. chathamensis)