After the death of the last known female, the giant softshell turtle faces extinction

The Yangtze gigantic softshell turtle is presently threatened with extinction.

According to VnExpress, a deceased lizard of its sort washed ashore on the shores of Dong Mo Lake in Vietnam on Sunday, measuring 156 cm long and weighing 93 kg.

"This is the same person we've been watching in recent years." "It's a real blow," Tim McCormack, director of the Asian Turtle Programme for Indo-Myanmar Conservation, told TIME. Local officials will soon do a DNA test on the animal's carcass to confirm its identity, but it was "almost certainly" the only known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), according to McCormack.

"It was a large female with obvious reproductive capacity." "She could have laid a hundred or more eggs per year," McCormack remarked. According to the outlet, the reptile could have perished days before it was discovered by villagers. Its cause of death is unknown because a full necropsy has yet to be performed.

The Yangtze giant softshell turtle, according to the Asian Species Action Partnership, "remains under extreme pressure from exploitation of adults and eggs for (subsistence) consumption and targeted capture attempts in recent years due to its increased value."

"It has also been impacted by habitat loss due to conversion, drainage, fragmentation, and pollution of wetlands and riparian habitats, as well as hydroelectric barrages and sand mining," the organisation states on its website.

After Sunday's discovery, only two known reptiles remained, one in China's Suzhou Zoo and the other in Hanoi's Xuân Khanh Lake, according to TIME. "I do think there's more out there," McCormack continued. I believe there is still hope for the species, but the death of a huge female is heartbreaking."