RE: Floating allosaurs?? (sort of...)

[Nathan Myhrvold <nathanm@intven.com>]

That's interesting. It isn't at all what I had read - there was a recent
paper comparing DNA in Galapagos tortises to mainland species, which I
thought were more normal tortise sizes.   Do you have any references?

The giant tortises have been observed to swim between the Galapagos islands,
and have been found miles out at sea.

Nathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Ronald Orenstein [mailto:ornstn@home.com]

The current wisdom about giant tortoises on both the Galapagos and the 
Indian Ocean Islands is that they did not get thereby rafting, but by 
swimming.  Tortoises float extremely well, particularly if they are already 
large animals, and the evidence seems to be that these turtles were giants 
before they headed out to sea.


--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2          mailto:ornstn@home.com