Chinese Pond Turtle
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| Chinese Pond Turtle | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinemys reevesii (Gray, 1831). |
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Mauremys reevesii |
The Chinese Pond Turtle, Chinese Three-keeled Pond Turtle, Golden Turtle, or Japanese Coin Turtle (Chinemys reevesii) is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae (=Bataguridae). It is found in China, Japan, and Taiwan.
This species is notorious for its ability to produce hybrids with other Geoemydidae, even species that are only distantly related. The supposed new species Mauremys pritchardi was based on a hybrid of unknown origin between a male of the present species and a female Asian Yellow Pond Turtle. Furthermore, it has hybridized with the Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle, female Malayan Box Turtles, a male Four-eyed Turtle, and Mauremys japonica in captivity. Any individuals that are available as pets therefore need to be kept separate from other members of the family, especially considering that the Chinese Pond Turtle is threatened by overhunting and habitat destruction in the wild.[1]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Parham et al. (2001), Buskirk et al. (2005)
[edit] References
- Asian Turtle Trade Working Group (2000). Chinemys reevesii. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 29 July 2007.
- Buskirk, James R.; Parham, James F. & Feldman, Chris R. (2005): On the hybridisation between two distantly related Asian turtles (Testudines: Sacalia × Mauremys). Salamandra 41: 21-26. PDF fulltext
- Parham, James Ford; Simison, W. Brian; Kozak, Kenneth H.; Feldman, Chris R. & Shi, Haitao (2001): New Chinese turtles: endangered or invalid? A reassessment of two species using mitochondrial DNA, allozyme electrophoresis and known-locality specimens. Animal Conservation 4(4): 357–367. HTML abstract Erratum: Animal Conservation 5(1): 86 HTML abstract
