Collecting Evolution

By Matthew Joseph James

Expeditions that took animal specimens seem counter to modern conservation values, but their goal was to preserve species for scientific knowledge.

Biology Evolution Natural History Nature Conservation

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This Article From Issue

November-December 2018

Volume 106, Number 6

Page 368

DOI: 10.1511/2018.106.6.368

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Early on the morning of April 2, 1906, Rollo Beck, Joseph Hunter, and Frederick Nelson set out in a small boat to cross the narrow channel between Albemarle (Isabela) and Narborough (Fernandina) Islands in the Galápagos archipelago.

About 19,000 Galápagos tortoises in 10 species remain on the islands, up from about 3,000 in the 1970s. That population, however, is a fraction of the more than 250,000 in 15 species estimated to have been on the islands in the 16th century. Mariners had harvested tortoises for food, and collecting expeditions felt the urgency of preserving tortoises from all the islands,even the last remaining ones. Similarly, a modern sole survivor, dubbed Lonesome George (*above*), was the final member of the Pinta Island tortoise species. After his death from natural causes in 2012, he was also preserved for display and for posterity.

**David Hosking/Alamy**

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