World's Oldest Creature Dies at 176

Believed to be the world's oldest creature, Harriet lived a long and eventful life on three continents.

Harriet was born before the motorcar was invented, before commercial steam trains, and before the industrial revolution got properly underway.

She is believed to have been five years old when English naturalist Charles Darwin visited South America's Galapagos Islands in 1835. He took her back with him aboard HMS Beagle. Darwin took three tortoise - Tom, Dick and Harry - unaware the trio were not all boys.

It wasn't until the 1950s, after living for more than a century as a male, that Harriet got her new name to accord with her gender.

Civil servant John Wickham brought the Galapagos exhibits with him from London when he came out to the colony in the 1850s to take charge of municipal affairs in what was then the small township of Brisbane.

Some disputed Harriet's story. But DNA testing vouched for her age and her birth in the Galapagos.