You may wonder why a giant tortoise species with powerful immunity and longevity genes is now extinct. Other genes connected with longevity in the giant tortoise, such as immune system genes and tumor suppressing genes, were not commonly found in humans. Spanish researchers reporting in Nature Ecology & Evolution have reported their findings on Lonesome George's genes, specifically those related to longevity and disease, and they discovered that the Pinta tortoise had many genes in common with some humans - longevity genes for one. The Pinta Island tortoise is the longest lived vertebrate, so is of special interest to research. While at the Research Station, George did mate with a few females from closely related tortoise species, but their offspring either never hatched or never developed. Perhaps George's life was cut short by loneliness his autopsy revealed he died from 'natural causes.'
One hundred years is not considered that long for a Pinta Island Tortoise, as some lived as many as 150 years. The island had been overtaken by feral goats who demolished the tortoise population on the island, so for safety, George was moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island, where he spent the remainder of his life. George was moved from the island of Pinta in 1971, where he was identified as the only living Pinta Island tortoise. Lonesome George in 2008, Arturo de Frias Marques, Wikipedia You might say he left his genes to science. Lonesome George was the last member of the Pinta Island giant tortoises, the Chelonoidis abingdonii, most recently of Santa Cruz Island off the Republic of Equador.