The species has an estimated carapace length of around . similar to giant tortoises currently found in some oceanic islands like the
Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and
Aldabra and the
Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Remains of
C. burchardi date to the
Middle Pleistocene, around 670-200,000 years ago. Another extinct tortoise species,
C. vulcanica, is known from the island of
Gran Canaria.
C. burchardi had a larger shell, with a length of approximately 65 to 94 cm, while
C. vulcanica shell had a 61 cm. It is believed that the ancestors of these tortoises could reach the eastern islands of the Canary Islands from the African continent and progressively moved to westward through that archipelago as their size also increased and its appearance evolved to adapt to the conditions of the archipelago. The species of Fuerteventura has been linked to
C. burchardi, but this identification is uncertain, and has been challenged. While often placed in the genus
Centrochelys, which contains the living
African spurred tortoise, the limited remains of the species make its placement in the genus uncertain, and thus the species is often referred to as
"Centrochelys" burchardi. == See also ==