230-year-old turtle shuffles off mortal coil, only four of species left
230-year-old tortoise dies
(From ChinaDaily.com: ) Updated: 2006-12-26 09:44A rare 230-year-old tortoise died at Shanghai Zoo recently, where it lived for 35 years, leaving only four of the species left in the world.
The zookeeper said the tortoise was found in Gejiu, Yunnan Province, in 1971. The rare species has only been found in two regions in China the Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province and the Honghe River in Yunnan Province. The zoo was saddened by the loss as it considered the tortoise to be in good condition. But a post-mortem examination showed its liver was damaged.
(Shanghai Morning Post )
Actually a turtle, Rafetus swinhoei , commonly known as the Shanghai soft-shell turtle or Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle, it had a shell one and half meters long when it died. More information in English at the asiaturtlenetwork.org and Wikipedia. Of the four left, only two are together (in the Western Temple, Suzhou), of venerable age and sex unknown, so the chance of them getting their Darwinian freak on are depressingly slim.
