The Galápagos tortoise (or giant Galápagos tortoise), Geochelone nigra, is the largest living For the band, see Tortoise (band). ...tortoise. It can weigh over 225 kg (500 pounds) and measure 1.8 m (6 feet) from head to tail. It is a very slow_moving animal, moving only 0.25 km/h (0.16 miles per hour). It is a In zoology, an herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat primarily plants (rather than meat). ...herbivore, eating grasses, plant leaves, cactus and fruits.

The Galápagos tortoise has a very large The hard, rigid outer calcium carbonate covering of certain animals is called a shell. ...shell (or carapace) made of Grays illustration of a human femur, a typically recognized bone. ...bone. The shape of the The term carapace refers to a dorsal section of an exoskeleton or shell, in a number of animal groups. ...carapace and other morphological features are indicative of the terrain the animal inhabits. Highland areas with lush vegetation near the ground are normally home to tortoises with domed shells; these animals have restricted upward head movement due to shorter necks, and tend to have shorter limbs as well (see photo). Coastal regions with less vegetation at ground level are inhabited by tortoises with saddle_back shells; their extended necks and limbs help them to reach food higher off the ground. Shells can also be of intermediate type, with characteristics between domed and saddle_back types.

The Galápagos tortoise is found on the NASA Satellite photo of the Galápagos archipelago. ...Galápagos Islands just west of The Republic of Ecuador is a country in northwestern South America, bounded by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean on the west. ...Ecuador in South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...South America. Because of the 250,000 tortoises that inhabited the island, The Spanish people or Spaniards are an ethnic group native to Spain, in southwestern Europe, who are primarily descended from the autochthonous pre_Indo_European Euskaldunak, Latin, Visigothic, Celtic and Moorish peoples. ...Spanish explorers named the islands Galápagos for the giant tortoises. Today only 15,000 are left.

One of the oldest living specimens is a giant Galápagos tortoise named Harriet at age 174 Harriet is an ancient tortoise at the Australia Zoo, a Queensland zoo famous as the home base of Steve Irwin, the star of The Crocodile Hunter. ...Harriet in the Australia Zoo at Beerwah, Queensland, Australia is owned by Steve Irwin and Terri Irwin, who costar on the The Crocodile Hunter, which is the name of their unconventional nature documentary series on television, as well as a spin-off series Croc Files. ...Australia Zoo at Beerwah, Motto: Audax at Fidelis (Bold but Faithful) Other Australian states and territories Capital Brisbane Governor HE Ms Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie (ALP) Area 1,852,642 km² (2st)  _ Land 1,730,648 km²  _ Water 121,994 km² (6. ...Queensland, Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is the sixth_largest country in the world, the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia/ Oceania. ...Australia. Its estimated date of birth is 1830.

This article incorporates text from the The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...public domain The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

External links

• American Museum of Natural History, Galapagos Giant Tortoise webpage (http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/Endangered/tortoise/tortoise.html)
• National Geographic article on Harriet (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/media/world/aow-horizontal-main.html)