Talk:Seychelles giant tortoise

Taxonomy
I'm trying to verify this edit against the IUCN website and having some difficulty finding Aldabrachelys hololissa there.

Going through IUCN's taxonomy, I can find class Animalia&gt;Chordata&gt;Reptilia but not ...&gt;Sauropsida. However, reading Reptile (to which Sauropsida is pipe-linked from this article's Infobox), which led me to Sauropsida, I understand that the two are related (perhaps synonymous). Wouldn't the class in the Infobox be better shown as Sauropsida/Reptilia if they are used interchangeably?

At IUCN, within Reptilia, I can find genus Testudines&gt;Testudinidae&gt;Dipsochelys, but not ...&gt;Aldabrachelys. We have separate pages for the two, with the Aldabrachelys page listing Dipsochelys as a direct synonym, but not vice-versa, with Dipsochelys seeming to say that it is the preferred term. If so, shouldn't this article (and others using Aldabrachelys) include and link the synonym to make understanding this easier when consulting outside sources?

Having said all that, when searching the IUCN site, it does not appear that they have evaluated this particular species, though they have evaluated the related Geochelone gigantea as vulnerable. I'm therefore reverting the edit above. —&#91;  Alan M 1  (talk) &#93;— 09:05, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

According to the only cited reference in this article (Austin et al., 2003), hololissa is not a valid species, but rather a synonym of dussumieri (or gigantea, if gigantea is considered the valid name of the Aldabra tortoises). Giant tortoises did occur in the Seychelles, but according to Austin et al. they are conspecific with the Aldabra giant tortoises. So, if the reference is to be followed, this article should be deleted, with possibly some salvageable content moved to the Aldabra giant tortoise article. MayerG (talk) 05:41, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
 * its valid, Aldabrachelys g. hololissa. See http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Accounts/crm_5_000_checklist_v5_2012.pdf page 000.276. Regards, Sun Creator(talk) 00:21, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, certainly not deleted, but redirected. FunkMonk (talk) 10:25, 17 March 2014 (UTC)