[4] Remains of C. burchardi date to the Middle Pleistocene, around 670-200,000 years ago.

[1] Another extinct tortoise species, C. vulcanica, is known from the island of Gran Canaria.

[5] It is believed that the ancestors of these tortoises could reach the eastern islands of the Canary Islands from the African continent and progressively moved to westward through that archipelago as their size also increased and its appearance evolved to adapt to the conditions of the archipelago.

[6] The species of Fuerteventura has been linked to C. burchardi, but this identification is uncertain, and has been challenged.

[7][8] While often placed in the genus Centrochelys, which contains the living African spurred tortoise, the limited remains of the species make its placement in the genus uncertain, and thus the species is often referred to as "Centrochelys" burchardi.