 Initially , the giant tortoises of the Indian Ocean and those from the Galápagos were considered to be the same species . Naturalists thought that sailors had transported the tortoises there . In 1676 , the pre @-@ Linnaean authority Claude Perrault referred to both species as Tortue des Indes . In 1783 , Johann Gottlob Schneider classified all giant tortoises as Testudo indica ( " Indian tortoise " ) . In 1812 , August Friedrich Schweigger named them Testudo gigantea ( " gigantic tortoise " ) . In 1834 , André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron classified the Galápagos tortoises as a separate species , which they named Testudo nigrita ( " black tortoise " ) . 
