出典:Wikipedia
出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/07/11 00:17 UTC 版)
The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a species of tortoise native to the Mojave desert and Sonoran desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. They can be located in the western Arizona, southeastern California, south Nevada, and the southwestern region of Utah. The species name agassizii is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. Recently, on the basis of DNA, geographic, and behavioral differences between desert tortoises in the Sonoran and Mojave desert, it was decided that the species should be split into two separate species: the Agassiz's Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) and Morafka's Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai).