 Van Denburgh's list still guides the taxonomy of the Galápagos tortoise, though now 10 populations are thought to have existed.The current specific designation of "nigra" ("black" – Quoy & Gaimard, 1824b) was resurrected in 1984 after it was discovered to be the senior synonym (an older taxonomic synonym taking historical precedence) for the then commonly used species name of "elephantopus" ("elephant-footed" – Harlan, 1827).Quoy and Gaimard's Latin description explains the use of "nigra