A subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise native to Ecuador's Pinta Island, this animal was presumed to be extinct by the mid-twentieth century due to uncontrolled hunting. The tortoise was first described by herpetologist Albert Günther in 1877, and the differences between subspecies of Galápagos tortoises --- adaptations suited to the distinctive environments of their different island homes --- helped Darwin formulate his theory of evolution. Like its relatives, the Pinta Island tortoise was known to rest for sixteen hours each day, and could reportedly survive almost six months without food or water. They provided a critical service to the local ecosystem, dispersing seeds and cycling nutrients for other animals and plants --- since their extinction, many other species on Pinta Island have suffered from the loss. In 1971, a single male Pinta Island tortoise was discovered and grimly nicknamed Lonesome George. Decades were unsuccessfully spent trying to mate him with other subspecies before his death in 2012. As Michael Blencowe writes, drawing attention to the sometimes oddly unnatural dynamics of conservation in last year's Gone: A Search for What Remains of the World's Extinct Creatures: George lived the life of a celebrity. He had a luxury compound with a pool, he put on a lot of weight and the world became unhealthily obsessed with his sex life. The same year as George's death, researchers from Yale found seventeen first-generation hybrids on the neighboring Isabela Island, prompting speculation that perhaps their Pinta Island parents were still extant.