''Centrochelys atlantica'' is an extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like oth ...

that lived in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. It was first recorded in the volcanic crater on Sal, Cape Verde.Chevalier, A., Joleaud , L., and Petit, G. 1935. Les dépôts quaternaires de l’ancien cratère de Pedra de Lume (île de Sal, archipel du Cap-Vert). ''Comptes Rendus des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris'' 200:1334–1335. It was initially identified as similar to the extant ''Testudo calcarata'' (= ''

Centrochelys sulcata The African spurred tortoise (''Centrochelys sulcata''), also called the sulcata tortoise, is a species of tortoise inhabiting the southern edge of the Sahara desert in Africa. It is the largest mainland species of tortoise in the world, and the ...

''). The species is no longer present anywhere in the Cape Verde islands. It has since been described as a new species, differentiated from ''C. sulcata'' by its smaller size and lesser robusticity. It does not seem there is any evidence this species came into contact with humans. Kehlmaier ''et al.'' (2021) identified the type material of this species as belonging to a specimen of the

red-footed tortoise The red-footed tortoise (''Chelonoidis carbonarius'') is a species of tortoise from northern South America. These medium-sized tortoises generally average as adults, but can reach over . They have dark-colored, loaf-shaped carapaces (back shell ...

, making ''C. atlantica'' a junior synonym of the latter species and leaving the extinct tortoise known from fossils excavated on the Sal Island in the 1930s without a scientific name.

References

{{Testudinidae Testudinidae Pleistocene turtles Neogene reptiles of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1998