Forever Shell

1. A gloved fingerHis vet held his beak open, very gently, with one gloved finger. A blood test would have given more, but the island's officials said no because of the infection risk.
2. Cheek cells and salivaA swab along the inside of his cheek picked up cells and spit: enough DNA for a partial read.
3. To the labThe swab DNA was incomplete, so the team merged it with a younger tortoise's. About 95% of the result is his own genome.

• 287 genetic variants only he has, many to do with repairing DNA, calming inflammation and handling insulin.
• Some ageing-related genes he shares with naked mole-rats, animals that hardly ever get cancer.
• It's one tortoise compared with a handful of others, so it can't be generalised, and it doesn't prove these marks are why he's lived so long. The pattern does match what's been seen in people over 110.

Put in any birth year — yours, a grandparent's, a house's, a city's — and see where it lands in one tortoise's life.

Your turn with the swab. Dome is munching lettuce. Hold to bring the gloved finger and swab to his beak, and keep holding while his mouth is open until the sample's in. He lifts his head just before he opens up. Lettuce still in his beak means he's chewing and will snap shut. Arrive while his beak is closed and you boop him: he hides in his shell. Four samples, no more than three boops.

1. about 1832Hatched in the Seychelles, an Aldabra giant tortoise. His kind usually live about 80 years.
2. 1882Given to the governor of Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic. A photo from that year already shows him fully grown, so he was at least 50.
3. since thenHe has lived on the lawn of Plantation House, the governor's residence. His name is Jonathan.
4. 2009A new vet took over his care. He had cataracts, no sense of smell and a soft beak that made grazing hard, so the vet hand-fed him; within a couple of years his beak had recovered. His vet suspects he's even older than 194.
5. April 2026A fake post pretending to be his vet claimed he had died and asked for crypto donations. It was a hoax.
6. October 2026The study of the cheek swab is published. “We almost never get to study an animal this old while it is still alive,” said one of the scientists.

About crypto and him: nobody who cares for him collects money in crypto, and this coin has nothing to do with him, his vet or the island. If anyone asks you to send crypto “for the tortoise”, it isn't them.