Taxonomy
This species was originally described in 1885 by French zoologist Léon Vaillant, who proposed it as the species Tesudo yniphora based on the distinguished shape of the anterior part of the plastron.
The angonoka tortoise (A. yniphora) along with the radiated tortoise (A. radiata) are the only species in the genus Astrochelys. Astrochelys is attributed to John Edward Gray who used the name in his 1873 book Hand-list of the specimens of shield reptiles in the British Museum. The parent family for Astrochelys is Testudinidae, the tortoise family.
The name angonoka comes from the Malagasy word which is used as the local name of the species. The alternative common name ploughshare tortoise refers to the appearance of the gular scute of the plastron.
Read more about this topic: Angonoka Tortoise