this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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This gay tortoise is older than the word “homosexual” (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 73 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Here he is (on the left) ca. 1886 at around 50 years old:

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do you have a source for that date? Those cars in the background don't look like anything that would've existed in 1886. In fact the first car put into production was patented in 1886 and it looked like this:

Black and white image of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, an early three-wheeled automobile

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Oops, you're absolutely right, I grabbed the wrong photo. Fixed. Pretty funny that that you can have a photo decades later than you thought and you can't tell by the animal in it, but by the technology in the background!

[–] [email protected] 73 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Heh. I just spent half a minute squinting the dark trees in the background, looking for the outline of a car. I didn't realise the picture was swapped.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

me too. I thought i was more blind than the tortoise in question lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Yeah, same lol

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That is definitely funny. I was just thinking, “How many fads and fashions has this one tortoise seen in his life?”

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

He's been around humans long enough to see to see, what, 6 or 7 generations?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is that a joke I'm too dumb to get?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No, I just think it's cool to see an animal in such an old photo that's still alive today. He wasn't young even then.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't think that photo is from 1886, not with those vehicles in the background. So I assumed it was a joke comment or AI, but all the subjects had normal finger counts, so I assumed joke.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The photo is from 1947, not 1886, according to my hasty googling.

The tortoise is from ~1832 and still alive and would've been around 50 in 1886.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_(tortoise)

Edit Here's a photo of him from 1886 the earlier poster prolly confused this photo with the 1947 photo for some reason.

Edit 2 and looking at these tortoises there was one alive until 2006 who was estimated (but not confirmed) to be from ~1750. That's crazy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adwaita

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I got a link for the wrong picture, that is indeed the one I meant to post.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You're right, I made a mistake. I put the correct one in.