Last year my husband and I spent vacation at Tulsa Zoo. There we saw a lot of animals that I have never seen when I was young. One of the animals they got was big turtle and I didn't know the name until I do my research today. The Galapagos tortoise is what I seen. They are really big and modest animals, as matter of fact I petted them when I saw them. This species live of all vertebrates averaging over 100 years. The oldest on record lived to be 152 years. Wow, I wish people live that long too. Galapagos tortoises are the world's largest tortoises with some specimens exceeding 5 feet in length and reaching 550 pounds.
The Tortoise played an important role in the Theory of Evolution. The islands common name is Spanish for saddle, referring to the shape of the Galapagos tortoise shell. When Charles Darwin, visited the Galapagos Islands, the vice-governor of the Island told him that he could identify what island the tortoise was from simply by looking at him. The different shapes of the giant tortoises on the various Galapagos islands was one of the findings that led Charles Darwin to develop the theory of evolution through natural selection. The theory is that some of the tortoises were 
probably taken by whaling ship that sailed from Floreana via the relatively remote Volcano Wolf in rout to multi-year cruises in the pacific looking for sperm whales. In July 2008, tortoise eggs were discovered in the pin that George shares with his companions. The world awaited to see if George would produce offspring, however in early December it was determined the eggs were not fertilized and George remains the last of his kind. The pictures I uploaded here were the pictures my husband and I taken at Tulsa Zoo during his vacation.
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