Giant tortoises spread to western Indian Ocean islands by sea drift in pre-Holocene times, not by later human agency - response to Wilmé et al. (2016a)

Cheke A.S., Pedrono M., Bour R., Anderson A., Griffiths C., Iverson J.B., Hume J.P., Walsh M.
2016

Evidence from DNA phylogeny, Plio-Pleistocene ocean currents, giant tortoise dispersal, evolution of plant defences, radiocarbon dates and archaeology indicates that the endemic giant tortoises on the Mascarenes and Seychelles colonized naturally and were not translocated there by humans. Giant tortoises have fascinated Indian Ocean travellers since their first discovery on Mauritius by the Dutch ...

Taxonomie et géographie animales