Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
στίγμα (''stígma''), meaning "spot", and χέλυς (''khélus''), meaning "turtle", is a genus of tortoise endemic to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
. ''Stigmochelys pardalis'', the
leopard tortoise
The leopard tortoise (''Stigmochelys pardalis'') is a large and attractively marked tortoise found in the savannas of eastern and southern Africa, from Sudan to the southern Cape Province. It is the only extant member of the genus ''Stigmochelys' ...
, is the only extant species. Leopard tortoises were once placed in the genus '' Geochelone'' along with many other large tortoises. Two fossil species are known:
* '' Stigmochelys brachygularis'' Laetoli beds, Tanzania,
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58
* '' Stigmochelys crassa'' Kenya,
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...