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Bringing Giant Tortoises Back From Extinction

Posted by timothy on from the reviving-the-turtle-hegemony dept.

fizzysister writes "The BBC reports that scientists at Yale are intending to resurrect an extinct species of Galapagos tortoise, the Geochelone elephantopus. Unfortunately, not in the style of Jurassic Park, so no tortoise-based theme parks just yet. They will, however, be using genetic profiling of living tortoises that carry some of the elephantopus genes, to select the most appropriate of these to mate and thus eventually (after a century or more) create a generation of 'pure' Geochelone elephantopus individuals."

7 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. TFA doesn't mention by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Funny

    any plans on training these resurrected giant tortoises in the art of Ninjitsu. What a gip.

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    Monstar L
    1. Re:TFA doesn't mention by Cow+Jones · · Score: 4, Funny

      any plans on training these resurrected giant tortoises in the art of Ninjitsu.

      Dude, those giant turtles are scary enough without Ninjitsu.
      In fact, one of them is so huge and powerful that four elephants couldn't manage to keep it down, unless they in turn were weighed down by a huge disk-shaped rock.

      CJ

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      Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
    2. Re:TFA doesn't mention by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's where you're wrong, it isn't just one turtle.

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      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:TFA doesn't mention by BarryJacobsen · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's where you're wrong, it isn't just one turtle.

      That's right! It's turtles all the way down!

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      Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
    4. Re:TFA doesn't mention by R2.0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      "What a gip."

      It's "gyp", derived from "Gypsies". Please get your culturally insensitive references correct or the PC police will run out of work, and we don't want that, now do we? Otherwise they might get involved in more important things, like changing housing policy to provide loans to unqualified applicants.

      Oh, wait...

      (This offtopic flamebait brought to you by the letter Y and the number "I paid off my fucking loans why can't everybody else?!")

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      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    5. Re:TFA doesn't mention by lpangelrob · · Score: 4, Funny

      The original poster may have been referring to the fact that Ronald Reagan, the original Gipper, also failed to fund the U.S. Ninja/Giant Tortoise Defense Initiative.

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      -Rob

      Biblical fiscal responsibility

  2. Re:This could redefine the term species by scorp1us · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought the definition rested on the the ability of the offspring to procreate successfully.

    Which, I am told, does happen occasionally for jack-asses.

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    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.