A kid asked me the other day what tortoises were the closest relatives of the Sulcata Tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata). I told him I did not know but that I would get back to him tomorrow.
Well I looked into it and it was harder than a quick google search. They’re in testunidae of course, they ARE a tortoise. But turns out all the other members of the Centrochelys genus are extinct.
Okay no big, just look up a phylogenetic tree for testunidae. Well for some reason every time I follow a link to a paper with one it would refuse to load.
Kid was slightly disappointed, but here’s a tortoise in a hat
