How DNA from the Dead Is Helping Boost Species on the Brink

Photo caption: The shell of a Floreana tortoise, extinct for 180 years, at the Field Museum in Chicago. Photo credit: Marc Schlossman. Article by Aisling Irwin. Yale Environment 360 – January 22, 2024.

When Evelyn Jensen visits a museum to scrape bone from a long-dead Galápagos tortoise, she has two hopes in mind. First, that the specimen’s genetic material will be well-preserved. Second, that she will find that it is a Floreana tortoise — a species that has been extinct for 180 years. […]

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