Harriet's Subspecies
That the subspecies Harriet represents was not from one of the islands visited by Darwin is not actually problematic. Darwin definitely collected tortoises on San Cristobal, San Salvadore, and Santa Maria; however, the subspecies on Santa Maria (G. n. nigra) was, in fact, already nearing extinction when Darwin visited the islands, having been killed and eaten by prisoners on the prison colony there. Yet Darwin still collected tortoises on Santa Maria: the tortoises he found had been retrieved by the prisoners from other islands for food and Darwin collected some of these before they reached the stewpot. Hence they were a mixture of subspecies from a number of islands. Harriet, as a G. n. porteri, is from Santa Cruz. One of the other tortoises (Tom) is still in the Queensland Museum and has been identified as a G. n. chathamensis (from San Cristobal).
Read more about this topic: Harriet (tortoise)
Famous quotes containing the word harriet:
“Summer is different. We now have breakfast together, for example ... it hasn’t happened in so long that we’re not sure how to go about it. So we bump into each other in the kitchen. I never saw Ozzie and Harriet bump into each other in the kitchen—not once. Ozzie knew his place was at the table, while Harriet knew that her place was at the stove.”
—Nathan Cobb (20th century)