Elseya
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Australian Snapping Turtles | ||||||||||||||
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About one dozen, see text |
The Australian Snapping Turtles, Elseya, are a genus of turtles in the family Chelidae.
The living species can be divided into 2 groups, with Emydura being intermediate between them. Consequently, it is anticipated that either the latter will be included here, or that Elysea will be split into two genera.[1]
latisternum group:
- Elseya latisternum
- Bellinger River Snapping Turtle, Elseya georgesi
- Manning River Snapping Turtle, Elseya purvisi
- Namoi River Snapping Turtle, Elseya belli
dentata group:
- Elseya dentata - may contain several species
- Elseya branderhorstii
- New Guinea Snapping Turtle, Elseya novaeguineae
- Elseya schultzei
- Irwin's turtle, Elseya irwini
- Elseya lavarackorum
- Southern Snapping Turtle, Elseya albagula - recently split from E. dentata[1]
- Elysea cf. dentata "Johnstone River"[1]
Elseya nadibajagu is a prehistoric species known only from fossils. E. lavarackorum was initially believed also to be a fossil taxon, but later discovered to be still extant.
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Thomson, Scott; Georges, Arthur & Limpus, Colin J. (2006): A New Species of Freshwater Turtle in the Genus Elseya (Testudines: Chelidae) from Central Coastal Queensland, Australia. Chelon. Conserv. Biol. 5(1): 74–86. PDF fulltext
