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Giant tortoises spread to western Indian Ocean islands by sea drift in pre‐Holocene times,not by later human agency – response to Wilmé et al. (2016a) |
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| Authors: | Anthony S Cheke Miguel Pedrono Roger Bour Atholl Anderson Christine Griffiths John B Iverson Julian P Hume Martin Walsh |
| Affiliation: | 1. , Oxford, UK;2. CIRAD, UR AGIRs, Ampandrianomby, BP 853, Antananarivo, Madagascar;3. Laboratoire des reptiles et amphibiens, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris cedex 05, France;4. Department of Archaeology & Natural History, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia;5. Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK;6. Department of Biology, Earlham College, Richmond, IN, USA;7. Bird Group, Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Tring, UK;8. Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK |
| Abstract: | Evidence from DNA phylogeny, Plio‐Pleistocene ocean currents, giant tortoise dispersal, evolution of plant defences, radiocarbon dates and archaeology indicates that the endemic giant tortoises on the Mascarenes and Seychelles colonized naturally and were not translocated there by humans. |
| Keywords: | Aldabra Austronesian giant tortoise heterophylly Mascarenes radiocarbon dating sea drift Seychelles |
