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Lonesome George Is Dead At 100

Posted by Unknown on from the he-was-only-middle-aged dept.

New submitter camperdave writes "Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his kind and a conservation icon, died on Sunday of unknown causes, the Galapagos National Park said. He was thought to be about 100 years old."

154 comments

  1. Soup's up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Is tortoise soup all that different from turtle soup?

    1. Re:Soup's up! by kat_skan · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nothing better on a cold night like this than some boiling hot soup! Why don't I just go ahead and heat you up a cup? It's made from turtles! Turtles that you love!

    2. Re:Soup's up! by humanrev · · Score: 1

      This reference could only be made due to the recent Humble Bundle...

      --
      Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
    3. Re:Soup's up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's turtles all the way down!

    4. Re:Soup's up! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      They didn't even bury him in his own grave?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re:Soup's up! by Like2Byte · · Score: 2

      He's been preserved in a jar for future study.

    6. Re:Soup's up! by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      I just wish he was lonesome Fred, that way we could sing the entire "Not yet dead / Not Dead Fred" from Monty Python to celebrate his passing...
      (yeah, just saw the musical by Eric Idle, hilarity).
      -nB

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  2. I LIKE TURTLES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    n/c

    1. Re:I LIKE TURTLES by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Out of all the reptiles, humans seem to connect better with Turtles then say Snakes, or Lizzards. If a Snake Species went extinct, there would be a lot less sorrow then for a Tortoise.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:I LIKE TURTLES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We do?

      You sound like someone who has never had a reptile for a pet.

  3. Extinct George by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not so lonesome anymore...

  4. Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Too bad he didn't get laid.

    1. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Informative

      He did; three times with two females from a different island a few years ago. The eggs were infertile.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:Poor bastard... by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Informative

      Different species, they hoped was "close enough" He should have his DNA be stored, maybe clone him in the future.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    3. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure they will do that.

    4. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Informative

      The official classification is that they were subspecies, actually. However, especially in modernity, the term "species" is reserved for groups that definitely can't be interbred with viable offspring (for whatever reason), so we might as well apply that here, although it's all still hazy.

      I believe they were separated by about ten million years; to put that in perspective, humans and chimps split 4–8 million years ago. Since one of the major limitations in cross-reproduction between two isolated species comes directly from the molecular clock of nucleotide change (specifically: different patterns of DNA hairpinning cause the paired chromosomes to be unable to recognize each other during gamete formation), even if they had managed to reproduce, it's almost certain the offspring would've been infertile.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    5. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      He was kind of a jerk. He once mugged a snail but was never charged. The snail couldn't ID him because the robbery happened too fast.

    6. Re:Poor bastard... by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

      he could have been impotent thus the inability to interbreed would not be able to produce offspring while still compatible species

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    7. Re:Poor bastard... by antifoidulus · · Score: 2

      They would have inserted frog DNA to bridge the gaps, but we all know how that turns out.

      --
      Monstar L
    8. Re:Poor bastard... by TheInternetGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

      he could have been impotent thus the inability to interbreed would not be able to produce offspring while still compatible species

      Nah, he was just wise with age, and took precautions so that he didn't need to spend the golden years heating formula and changing turtle diapers.

      --
      If my comment didn't sound as good in your head as it did in mine, then I guess we all know who's to blame
    9. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It'd become a very confused female turtle named Kermette, which would then try to kill us all for some reason.

    10. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2, Informative

      That theory is out; turtles don't lay eggs unless mating has occurred, and three clutches were found.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    11. Re:Poor bastard... by bickerdyke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I believe they were separated by about ten million years; to put that in perspective, humans and chimps split 4–8 million years ago.

      And to put THAT in perspective. He tried it three times ago with a female-thing that's even 2 to 6 million years further apart from his biology than man is away from monkeys.

      Yuck. Must. not. think. about it.

      --
      bickerdyke
    12. Re:Poor bastard... by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have a pet turtle that has laid eggs twice now, most recently last week. It hasn't met another turtle since I bought it as a baby from the pet store, several years ago.

    13. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Omelette for breakfast ?

    14. Re:Poor bastard... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sorry, but breeding is not a definitive black and white for species. That two populations can interbreed and produce fertile offspring does not automatically make them the same species (grizzly bears and polar bears), any more than an inability to interbreed means they're not (ie. chihuahuas and Great Danes).

      The species concept is considerably more complex than inter fertility, and is really a spectrum of traits that will always be somewhat subjective. Nature doesn't follow nice clean Linnean lines.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    15. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Shh! You're ruining my gig! These people think I know something!

      At least one news site made the same mistake. I inferred it from there, after giving up my hunt for an answer to that exact question and assuming they knew something. Clearly trusting journalists was a mistake.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    16. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2

      I was waiting for that to come along. Did I ever mention how lousy my ecology professor was? Taxonomy always seemed like a really fun area, but I never got around to a population genetics course. Time to crack open one of the fifty-ish books I have that covers it, I guess.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    17. Re:Poor bastard... by Sique · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let me ask you a question as a biologist -- I've learned too that species encompasses all individuals who can interbred with each other and produce fertile offspring. But some livings have a too weird reproductive cycle to be reconsilidated with that definition.
      Lets look at the common dandelion (Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia). There are three kinds of dandelion plants out there, looking all the same. But some are diploid, others triploid and quadroploid. Triploid dandelions are sterile, they can only clone itself to reproduce. Diploid dandelions can interbred with other diploid dandelions, and their offspring is quadroploid. Quadroploid dandelions can't interbred with each other, but diploid dandelions can interbred with quadroploids, and the offspring is triploid. Here the story would come to an end, because triploids are sterile. But sometimes during cloning, something goes wrong, and a diploid seed is produced, causing a fertile diploid dandelion to grow, and now the cycle starts again. So how does a biologist classify the dandelion individual, where most dandelions are infertile, some can't interbred with each other, and only one kind is quite fertile, but does not reproduce itself during interbreding? One could define one dandelion individual as being all the plants from a diploid, it's quadroploid offspring, the triploid F2 generation and then all clones until the next diploid clone. But then we get into the "divisible individual" contradiction.

      How does a biologist deal with such situations? Just some handweaving "Yes, this is weird, but you get the term species in general, do yo"?

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    18. Re:Poor bastard... by englishknnigits · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nature always finds a way...

    19. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I just sorta had my butt handed to me on that question, so I may not be the best person to consult about the basics of taxonomy. I do however believe there ought to be a disclaimer somewhere at the start of every genetics textbook that goes something to the tune of "don't ask about plants and ploidy, you'll never be satisfied with the answer."

      But to make a long story short, I would actually map the different ploidies of dandelions to something like sexes. Organisms adopt some heinously bizarre techniques for managing population size when they're wildly successful, and it sounds to me like this is a reproductive strategy that's working quite handsomely for them. It kinda reminds me of C. elegans, which is a 95% self-fertilizing hermaphrodite, 5% male species; the males exist to jumble things up now and then. (And there are certainly plenty of species with infertile members, like social insects!)

      Interestingly, there are ample parallels to be drawn in computing with various techniques for jiggling neural networks to get them out of local minima.

      In the species question. I'm pretty sure that the content of the chromosomes is considered a factor as well. Wikipedia has an article on the species problem (if you aren't holding the answer behind your back, since you clearly know your Mendelian genetics!) which I am probably not yet qualified to comment on the reliability of. The hard truth, though, is that the word is archaic fluff, and that organisms fall in and out of style (mostly out) with each other all the time. A slightly better concept is this thing, but that has more to do with population flow than anything rightly concrete.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    20. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just to add to the wtf factor: black-headed gulls. There's populations all round the arctic circle. And all the populations can interbreed with the neighbor populations *except* for two, which are infertile. So A->B works, B->C, C->D ... X->Y, Y->Z. But Z->A, they're different species!

    21. Re:Poor bastard... by Sigg3.net · · Score: 1

      The problem is that the species distinction doesn't hold over time, and with time being a necessary factor for evolution, the species definition is not necessarily in its best shape within the evolutionary framework.

      --
      Defining Statistics and Social Research
    22. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now you know why they called him LONESOME.

    23. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's like infinitely times more than the average slashdotter!

    24. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Turtles vs tortoises, perhaps?

    25. Re:Poor bastard... by quenda · · Score: 2

      he could have been impotent thus the inability to interbreed would not be able to produce offspring while still compatible species

      Well, he was a hundred years old. Did they try giving him Viagra(tm)?

    26. Re:Poor bastard... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I thought reptiles didn't have willies?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    27. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle#Turtle.2C_tortoise.2C_or_terrapin

    28. Re:Poor bastard... by realsilly · · Score: 2

      Yes a turtle that has strong jumping legs and a long sticky tongue.

      --
      Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
    29. Re:Poor bastard... by Sique · · Score: 1

      The dandelion strategy makes it possible to spread mutations fast by cloning and still have a plan B if the mutations don't work out positively. It's a strategy adapted to fast adaption. :)

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    30. Re:Poor bastard... by Hatta · · Score: 1

      How does a biologist deal with such situations? Just some handweaving "Yes, this is weird, but you get the term species in general, do yo"?

      Yes exactly. Nature does not have to fit into easily deliniable categories like species. These are categories that we invented for our use. A few edge cases don't impair the general usefulness of the concept of species.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    31. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      for a species so commonly infertile they sure do manage to take over my lawn quite efficiently. thanks for that interesting knowledge bit, I'd never heard they had such an unusual reproductive style.

    32. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However I wonder how those ID proponents deal with that problem, because they claim that evolution can never cross a species boundary, which implies that there are clear-cut species boundaries.

      OK, I can guess how they deal with the problem: They ignore it.

    33. Re:Poor bastard... by thomasw_lrd · · Score: 1

      Whatever dandelions do, they are damn successful. You can't kill those bastards. They just keep coming back. They're like roaches, and mosquitoes.

      --
      21st Century Renaissance Man
    34. Re:Poor bastard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, were you ever wrong! Google a little. Well, not literally a little.. you know...just sort of normal.... er.... umm... just Google it.

    35. Re:Poor bastard... by schroedingers_hat · · Score: 1

      Trusting journalists is almost always a mistake.
      Any time I gain sufficient knowledge on a topic to know what's going on before the journalists pick up on it, I find articles from almost any news source with completely unreferenced, poorly explained or downright wrong simplifications to what they're talking about.
      Unfortunately the topics on which my knowledge is that deep and up to date are somewhat limited. So i can't say if it's endemic.

    36. Re:Poor bastard... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      You could have just said it was turtles all the way down.

      A much easier answer and much less confusing.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    37. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      That would probably offend the Pratchett fans!

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    38. Re:Poor bastard... by HiggsBison · · Score: 2

      Not to get too picky, but: I went to Wikipedia to find out what the heck a C. elegans was. (Nematode) Anyway, the split seem to be more 99.95%/0.05%.

      --
      My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
    39. Re:Poor bastard... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      See the timestamp on my comment? Yeah, I shouldn't be posting at 4 AM. You're right; the number I was taught was one in two thousand. I have no idea why I wrote that.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    40. Re:Poor bastard... by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      I think the "viable offspring" is the closest to a comprehensive definition of species as you'll get aside from "I know it when I see it."

      Species is, when you get down to it, a purely artificial distinction for our convenience. Nature doesn't think in terms of species. We're trying to apply a rational, universal organizing scheme to something that is not organized like that.

      Furthermore, when you consider that the vast preponderance of life on the Earth is bacteria that don't mate and have no real cohesion and cannot really be put into species, it makes the species question trivial anyway.

    41. Re:Poor bastard... by Sique · · Score: 1

      Not exactly. My children have some guinea pigs. So we often harvest all the dandelions we can find, because the guinea pigs absolutely love them. At the end of the summer, nearly no dandelions are left, except for the small little plants that come out of some cracks in the yard, which we don't plug, because they are too small. If you consider dandelions weed you will find that they grow everywhere and are not killable. If you actually look for dandelions to feed your pets, they get sparse, and sparse, and then you have to ask the neighbours if you can get their dandelions too, because you already drove your dandelion stock to the brink of extinction. :)

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    42. Re:Poor bastard... by thomasw_lrd · · Score: 1

      I like dandelions. I pick the flowers for making wine with and you are correct. I am completely out of dandelions right now. You cam also eat the roots and the leaves.

      --
      21st Century Renaissance Man
  5. First... Er... Last [wait for it]... by markian · · Score: -1, Troll

    Post!

    (sorry! RIP George!)

    1. Re:First... Er... Last [wait for it]... by davester666 · · Score: 0

      High Pitched Voice: "Send In The Clones!"

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  6. Subspecies! by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let's get the pedantic train started early: George was the last of his subspecies (Canoe gets this right... in one of two mentions.) A lot of other sources have been saying species incorrectly. Here's the corresponding Wikipedia page. There are still giant tortoises on Galapagos, just not any of the ones native to the island of La Pinta.

    --
    Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    1. Re:Subspecies! by catmistake · · Score: 5, Funny

      Organisms that belong to different subspecies of the same species are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring

      Here, then, Lonesome George was a subspecies anomaly. He got more action than any slashdotters with a 4-digit user identifier, but I suppose that really isn't saying too much.

      --
      The Admin and the Engineer
    2. Re:Subspecies! by el_flynn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey, I resent that!

      --
      The Wknd Sessions - Malaysian and South East Asia independent music
    3. Re:Subspecies! by phantomfive · · Score: 1, Redundant

      You also resemble it

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Subspecies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But alas, due to the aforementioned problem earlier in the thread, no one resembles him.

    5. Re:Subspecies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be new here

    6. Re:Subspecies! by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      If it was just a subspecies, why were there no offspring with other subspecies?

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    7. Re:Subspecies! by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2

      That's where it gets messy...

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    8. Re:Subspecies! by whoop · · Score: 2

      I don't get it...

      *bada*bing!

    9. Re:Subspecies! by Lproven · · Score: 1

      Swine! That comment is *far too* insightful.

      --
      Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
    10. Re:Subspecies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not In Like Flynn?

    11. Re:Subspecies! by Quila · · Score: 1

      It's a way environmentalists can get more attention. Take a species that may or may not be endangered, but isn't anywhere close to extinct. Subdivide by minor differences of no importance. Now you have lots of "species" (we'll leave out the "sub" part in the press releases) that are close to extinction.

      Or even better, find a species that has a small subpopulation that is slightly different, declare it to be another species, and now it's endangered and you can wall-off huge areas of land from human use.

    12. Re:Subspecies! by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      In all honesty, that's unnecessary. There are more than enough legitimately rare animals now that need protection. Not that it doesn't happen—the story Crowdsourcing and Scientific Truth from last month led to this gem, regarding the extinct ivory-billed woodpecker:

      The weirdest part of the ivory-bill's resurrection is that if you look back through the past four decades, it turns out the bird has come back to life many times before. The ivory-bill seems to rise like a phoenix at times of environmental anxiety. And each time the sighting has been debunked, and then afterward some great section of wilderness has been declared protected and everyone feels better for a while.

      After a 1966 disputed sighting in Texas, 84,550 acres became the Big Thicket National Preserve. When the ivory-bill was sighted/not sighted in a South Carolina swamp in 1971, the outcome was the creation of Congaree National Park. Alex Sanders, who as a member of South Carolina's House of Representatives fought to preserve the land, told me that when people ask him where the ivory-bill is, he says, "I don’t know where he is now, but I know where he was when we needed him."

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  7. DNA? by fragMasterFlash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Was his DNA sequenced? Has any of his genetic material been preserved? It would really be sad if the best we can offer the last specimen of such a magnificent species is a spot in a museum display case for his carcass.

    1. Re:DNA? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Informative

      It looks like DNA from Lonesome George (along with many other specimens from the archipelago) were collected a few years ago and used in some analyses, suggesting they were at least partially sequenced. That article mentions sequencing of the full genome of Galapagos tortoises in general, but not necessarily George in particular. I would expect that it would be under way now if it wasn't already, however, especially with the recent affordability of sequencing.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:DNA? by FrootLoops · · Score: 1

      Geez, stop being so informative!

      Seriously though, thanks, it's always nice to have actual expertise in these discussions.

    3. Re:DNA? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Funny

      Informative karma is the cheapest karma. O, were it only that these words might be found insightful or interesting! (But I'll settle for funny.)

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    4. Re:DNA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The greatest achievement, of course, is Underrated Karma. +5 Interesting of +5 Insightful is not that rare. However how often have you seen +5 without a qualifier?

    5. Re:DNA? by Sigg3.net · · Score: 1

      I only hope they make two, so they can be Social George.

      --
      Defining Statistics and Social Research
    6. Re:DNA? by Anachragnome · · Score: 1

      Even so, if it HASN'T, I'm sure some of his DNA may yet still be available, even if it requires a little digging. It isn't like he died 5,000 years ago.

      My faith in scientists (boy, did THAT combination of words make me wince...) leads me to believe that a necropsy was more then likely performed, including the taking of tissues for analysis. The next question is what would we do with it? Is it possible to insert male DNA into the sperm of another tortoise subspecies? An already fertilized egg? Far out of my field. Anyone know? Or do we just parade it around as some warning to subsequent generations of humans? Even that would be better then a dusty shelf.

      Speaking of which, don't we have a stuffed Dodo bird somewhere?

      Regardless, 'tis a sad day, especially when I remember that we humans are no safer, nor more significant. Our survival as a species is no more guaranteed then George's was.

    7. Re:DNA? by coolmadsi · · Score: 1

      The greatest achievement, of course, is Underrated Karma. +5 Interesting of +5 Insightful is not that rare. However how often have you seen +5 without a qualifier?

      I think Underrated/Overrated karma isn't affected by meta-moderation, so some might use it as a way to try and shape early discussion without risking losing mod points later on when more people read later and moderate correctly.

  8. PETA Press Release by Xibby · · Score: -1

    I predict a PETA press release condemning his keepers by noon EST tomorrow.

    --
    I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
  9. oh no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    oh oh! alas :(

    1. Re:oh no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      oh oh! alas :(

      There, there.

  10. Unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    "...died on Sunday of unknown causes..." Old As Fuck. That's why. Fucker's 700 years old in dog years.

    1. Re:Unknown? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, but you don't suddenly drop dead from being old. There's generally a specific medical cause.

      ...also, another point of pedantry: it was suspected he was at least a hundred. It was theorized that may have been much older, perhaps closer to 200 than 100. Turtles are so damn rugged and scaly that it's impossible to really tell just by observation. Dying at the age of one hundred would actually have been a little premature for a Galapagos tortoise, equivalent to probably 60 or 65ish for a human, I think.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:Unknown? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      Yes, but you don't suddenly drop dead from being old. There's generally a specific medical cause.

            Those two things are not mutually exclusive - in fact, that's pretty much how all creatures die, outside accidents and being killed by external causes.

             

    3. Re:Unknown? by Greyfox · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Probably... GLOBAL WARMING!
      *cough*
      Gl... Global warming...

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    4. Re:Unknown? by Tarlus · · Score: 2

      Well, if they can live to be 200 years old, then relatively speaking, 100(ish) isn't that old...

      --
      /* No Comment */
    5. Re:Unknown? by Tarlus · · Score: 2

      Turtles are so damn rugged and scaly that it's impossible to really tell just by observation.

      Well, now they can just count the rings.

      --
      /* No Comment */
    6. Re:Unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those two things are not mutually exclusive - in fact, that's pretty much how all creatures die...

      Age doesn't simply kill, systemic failures related to age do. Knowing the final straw might not help anything, but not knowing certainly can't.

    7. Re:Unknown? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      I think you may have misunderstood my delivery; that's what I meant.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    8. Re:Unknown? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      Your signature does more to compromise your neutrality than your post's text. I'm impressed!

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    9. Re:Unknown? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm pretty sure that only works on elephants and investment bankers.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    10. Re:Unknown? by EdIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "...died on Sunday of unknown causes..." Old As Fuck. That's why. Fucker's 700 years old in dog years.

      Old? For an apricot, yes. For a head of lettuce, even more so. For a mountain, I have not even begun. For a turtle, I was just right.

    11. Re:Unknown? by RivenAleem · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, but you don't suddenly drop dead from being old.

      He was a Tortoise, they don't suddenly do ANYTHING.

    12. Re:Unknown? by RivenAleem · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, with no women around he should have been able to live forever. I think the scientists are to blame for introducing him to not just one, but two females. There's your cause for reduced lifespan right there.

    13. Re:Unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 for the remo williams reference chun.

    14. Re:Unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now that we can get his shell off and cut him up, perhaps we could count the rings in his trunk.

    15. Re:Unknown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Surely it works on hiphop artists too?

    16. Re:Unknown? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      They weren't turtle-wives, they were basically his turtle-concubines. The exertion could still be bad for his lifespan but would do wonders for life quality! An excellent tradeoff I'd say B-)

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    17. Re:Unknown? by Njoyda+Sauce · · Score: 2

      When we visited in 2009, we were told by one of the guides that she was his personal fluffer (my words). That's gotta be hard to put on a resume.

      --

      You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.
    18. Re:Unknown? by Kaptain+Kruton · · Score: 1

      Yes, but you don't suddenly drop dead from being old.

      He was a Tortoise, they don't suddenly do ANYTHING.

      Evidently, they do drop dead.... that is something.

  11. Guess what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    All I can say is...damn that soup was good!

  12. Unknown causes by MrKaos · · Score: 0

    Maybe he was lonely. Pity, they were so delicious, I've heard and such a delicious animal should never be lonely - muhahahahaha.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  13. Soup's On! by littlewink · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Finally those Park Rangers get a decent upscale meal!

  14. no way by Bill+Dog · · Score: 1

    I would've never guessed George Thorogood could've even made it to that age, what with his pal Johnny Walker and his brothers Black and Red.

    --
    Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
  15. DNA Record by SealBeater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope we keep extensive, redundant dna samples. There's no reason we can't at least keep a record for posterity.

    --
    -- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
    1. Re:DNA Record by Dekker3D · · Score: 1

      This needs a +1, agreed.

      We can't know in advance just what we'd do with those samples, but we definitely should keep them around just in case we need that data years in the future... and go all "Oh drat! Forgot to backup our animals.."

    2. Re:DNA Record by chord.wav · · Score: 1

      Hopefully, alien spaceships will come for the whales, not the giant turtles

  16. Cloning by wisebabo · · Score: 2

    Even if his DNA wasn't sequenced, it should be possible to clone him (and the females mentioned in the article). I'm hoping they took tissue samples from the females, otherwise there would just be an endless line of lonesome georges (unless he could be bred with other sub-species).

    I would assume that cloning reptiles is much easier than cloning mammals, didn't they do a frog decades ago? Of course it would be ironic if, due to "mistakes" in the cloning process, they expressed some long inactive part of the DNA and ended up with a dinosaur instead! (I'm not sure if a turtle is technically a dinosaur already but you know what I mean; big, scary and capable of starring in a movie).

    1. Re:Cloning by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Oh, give me a clone
      Of my own flesh and bone
      With its Y chromosome changed to X.
      And after it's grown,
      Then my own little clone
      Will be of the opposite sex.

      Clone, clone of my own,
      With its Y chromosome changed to X.
      And when I'm alone
      With my own little clone
      We will both think of nothing but sex.

      The Clone Song: Isaac Asimov

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    2. Re:Cloning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, a clone made from an adult stem cell of the bone marrow from one of your rips. Isn't that how Eve was created? :-)

      Captcha: emigrant -- fits in some way :-)

    3. Re:Cloning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... (I'm not sure if a turtle is technically a dinosaur already but you know what I mean; big, scary and capable of starring in a movie).

      Please, no. We do not need any more Kardashians.

    4. Re:Cloning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if his DNA wasn't sequenced, it should be possible to clone him (and the females mentioned in the article). I'm hoping they took tissue samples from the females, otherwise there would just be an endless line of lonesome georges (unless he could be bred with other sub-species).

      I would assume that cloning reptiles is much easier than cloning mammals, didn't they do a frog decades ago? Of course it would be ironic if, due to "mistakes" in the cloning process, they expressed some long inactive part of the DNA and ended up with a dinosaur instead! (I'm not sure if a turtle is technically a dinosaur already but you know what I mean; big, scary and capable of starring in a movie).

      How would you clone him? DNA alone does not contain all the information comprising an organism. The DNA and RNA complement, and e.g. DNA modifications (methylation, acetylation, etc.) are also needed.

      Life isn't seeded by a stagnant piece of DNA that suddenly starts transcribing. It's a continuous process: what gets transcribed is controlled by the concentrations of many different molecular species.

      You could replace the DNA of another tortoise cell with this ones DNA, and probably get something, but would it be the same tortoise? How much of that turtle's distinctiveness is contained in the non DNA state of the zygote from which it arose?

      Lonesome George is GONE.

  17. And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Not a fuck was given. Game, set match, bitches!! j/k

  18. ~100 years of memories? by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 0

    Does anyone know whether tortoises of his kind have high long-term memory capability? I find myself wondering whether he would remember the loss of so many family members over the years thanks to humans who were not conscious of the ramifications of what they were doing.

    --
    I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
    1. Re:~100 years of memories? by 6Yankee · · Score: 1, Redundant

      I find myself wondering whether he would remember the loss of so many family members

      Not any more...

    2. Re:~100 years of memories? by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      That would require not only memory but a great deal of understanding. I find it hard to accept a tortoise could possess such mental power. Given lizards are older than mammals were that the case I suspect we'd all be cowering in the shadow of our overload's shells.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    3. Re:~100 years of memories? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here I was expecting speculation on the possibility of a USB tortoise

  19. Wrong, maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not sure about tortoise-DNA, but in humans it is the male that possess both gender-chromosomes (X and Y), while the female only possess X-chromosomes. Thus it's theoretically possible to clone male and female-organisms from male DNA, but only females from female DNA. Again, not sure about tortoises but...

    1. Re:Wrong, maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It doesn't work that way for everything. In reptiles, the females have ZW, and the males ZZ. This means when a female self fertilizes (parthenogenesis) they can produce male and female offspring, as well as WW (usually inviable).

    2. Re:Wrong, maybe... by samoanbiscuit · · Score: 5, Informative

      The XX/XY sex determination system is mostly the domain of mammals. Most reptiles and birds use the ZZ/ZW where the ZZ chromosome holders are male. Some reptiles use temperature based sex determination that is considered to be the ancestor of the other forms.

    3. Re:Wrong, maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the platypus, in its quest to be the oddest animal in the world, has a full 10 sex chromosomes, and their mechanism isn't quite well understood yet.

  20. Saved its DNA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Hope somebody saved its DNA or at least sequenced it, so that the species can be revived some day.

    1. Re:Saved its DNA? by tompaulco · · Score: 1

      Hope somebody saved its DNA or at least sequenced it, so that the species can be revived some day.
      Nature has declared this a failed species. Who are we to question nature's logic?

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  21. It's just turtles by maroberts · · Score: 2

    ...all the way down.

    [/pratchett]

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  22. And there's more by maroberts · · Score: 2

    is everyone sure that he was turtally dead?
    Yes?
    Turtle bummer, man!

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  23. Age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "About 100"

    At least now they can chop him in half and count the rings.

    1. Re:Age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None of the Rings were given to turtles.

    2. Re:Age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "About 100"

      At least now they can chop him in half and count the rings.

      or make soup!

  24. Before anyone says anything by maroberts · · Score: 2

    I'm not going to let the minor differences between turtles and tortoises get in the way of bad jokes, so don't flipper out.

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

    1. Re:Before anyone says anything by JustOK · · Score: 1

      and what is the porpoise of that?

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  25. I need to top skimming summaries by guttentag · · Score: 2

    Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his kind and a conservation icon, died on Sunday of unknown causes, the Galapagos National Park said. He was thought to be about 100 years old.

    Anyone else misread that as "conservative icon" and think this was going to be a story about a pre-Tea Party republican senator?

    1. Re:I need to top skimming summaries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and what if the skimming summaries aren't gay?

  26. The secret to long life? by SoundGuyNoise · · Score: 1

    Clean livin'. Clean livin'.

    --
    You never expect irony, do you?
    Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
    @iyfwrestling
    1. Re:The secret to long life? by Hognoxious · · Score: 0

      You mean give up drinking, gambling, loose cars & fast women?

      You might not live to be 100, but it'll sure feel like it!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:The secret to long life? by camperdave · · Score: 0

      ... drinking, gambling, loose cars & fast women...

      Why do you think he only lived to 100. That's young for a tortoise.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  27. last in captivity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article I read yesterday said that there might still be a few in the wild, but no one knows for sure.

  28. Charles Darwin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wasn't that the turtle that Charles Darwin Himself brought from the Galapagos? He must've been much older than 100 years.

  29. How do they know? by slashmojo · · Score: 1

    Maybe he's just having a nap? He is 100 after all.. is he wearing his slippers?

    But seriously - just how do you know a giant tortoise is dead? Did they check his pulse? Did they wait until he started to smell? (I refer back to him being 100..)

  30. Why did it take so long to get this story up? by damn_registrars · · Score: 1, Funny

    All the news agencies had already covered and forgotten this story by now.

    Frankly, I think a tortoise could have gotten this story up on his own front page in less time...

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:Why did it take so long to get this story up? by mister_playboy · · Score: 1

      Welcome to Slashdot, please enjoy your stay.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    2. Re:Why did it take so long to get this story up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it took so long because slashdot is also all turtles, all the way down

    3. Re:Why did it take so long to get this story up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, now. Slow and steady win the race. You didn't see any news on the recently died Giant Rabbit.

  31. Unemployment by AlienIntelligence · · Score: 0

    With the money you get from shill articles and oh /. can you answer something I could have easily googled...
    you should pay someone to get these articles out faster than a week later.

    Slashdot, News for nerds, recapped, in case you didn't see it on the other 30 sites out there. Stuff that mattered...

    -AI

    --
    For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
  32. Update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his kind and a conservation icon, died on Sunday of loneliness.

    so ronery :(

  33. I'm confused by Yoda222 · · Score: 1, Funny

    From my science courses, I know that God put the dinosaurs fossils in the ground, and that evolution don't exists. We always have the same species/subspecies/... form the beginning of the world (arround 6000 years ago.) So how does that fits in the model ? - Georges never exists, God just gives us a dead body and implant some fake memories in our brain ? - Georges will reborn (and he is in fact the son of God) ? - Some other explanation ?

    1. Re:I'm confused by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 1

      According to Creationists, the species now around are unchanged from back then, but we didn't have the same species then as we have now.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    2. Re:I'm confused by thomasw_lrd · · Score: 1

      I don't know what crazy creationists you are talking to, but we don't all believe like that. I'm sure you'll say that I'm grasping at straws, but I'm sure the bible explains most of the dinosaurs and stuff. In particular, in the Garden of Eden, when God cursed the serpent. In my own belief system, this is when God killed all the dinosaurs. And yes evolution does exist, I just don't believe that we were once single celled organisms. I do believe that all species change over time.

      --
      21st Century Renaissance Man
  34. George gets the last laugh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Outlived all the fuckers who found him and put him in a zoo.

    Outlived them all by decades!

  35. Unknown causes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He died of unknown causes? He was 100 years old!!

  36. You know what's coming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And I, for one, welcome our new reptilian overlords.

  37. Interspecies mating... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm so the old fart got to breed with younger females of a different kind. Can't see why it didnt work especially if you think of niggers as an inferior subspecies of humans and they breed with dumb white women to produce hybrid nigglets... :P

  38. Turtle rings? by HiggsBison · · Score: 1

    I thought I remembered reading about this. Um... yeah, it works for turtles, too. Well, young turtles at least. Google for turtle count rings.

    --
    My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
    1. Re:Turtle rings? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      At least for box turtles (the most frequently-discussed species) it looks like the "young" constraint comes from wear-and tear. I think you might be able to tell the age of an older one if you were looking at a cross section—but if there's one thing this story has taught me, it's that my expectations and assumptions regarding reptiles are completely unreliable, so don't quote me on that.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  39. Rigortortoise by BadPirate · · Score: 0

    Also... Turtle sex... clack - clack - clack - clack - clack...

    That is all.

    --
    - Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
  40. With garlic, white vinegar & some Jamaican pep by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Ah, study. Like the research the Japanese do on whales?

    You know, the ones where the results are "they taste very nice, thanks".

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."