According to the 2005 DNA sequence data, these species do not seem to hybridize to a notable extent in the wild, though they are obviously very close relatives, and as evidenced by morphology, some allele flow still occurs, but slowly. The Egyptian tortoise appears to represent a lineage that diverged from the same ancestral stock southwards into northeastern Africa around the same time as the marginated tortoise's ancestors diverged in Greece. These two are actually more similar to each other than to "T. graeca" regarding DNA sequence data, but considering biogeography, this is either due to (rather unlikely) dispersal across the Mediterranean, or the supposed "clade" is invalid and the similarity due to convergent evolution.