Burmese flapshell turtle

Burmese flapshell turtle
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Reptilia
Order:Testudines
Suborder:Cryptodira
Family:Trionychidae
Genus:Lissemys
Species: L. scutata
Binomial name
Lissemys scutata
(W. Peters, 1868)
Synonyms[1]
  • Emyda scutata
    W. Peters, 1868
  • Emyda fuscomaculata
    Gray, 1873
  • Emyda granosa scutata
    — Annandale, 1912
  • Lissemys punctata scutata
    — M.A. Smith, 1931
  • Trionyx punctatus scutatus
    — Mertens, L. Müller & Rust, 1934
  • Lissemys scutata
    — Webb, 1982

The Burmese flapshell turtle (Lissemys scutata), is a species of turtle in the family Trionychidae. The species is endemic to Asia.

Geographic range and habitat

L. scutata lives in the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers of Myanmar, and occurs in northeastern Thailand, and possibly in Yunnan Province, China (Kuchling, 1995).

Description

L. scutata has an olive-brown to brown carapace with some dark spotting (in juveniles) or reticulations (in adults), and the first peripheral is smaller than the second. The head is olive to brown with an indistinct dark stripe extending backward from each orbit and another passing backward between the orbits.

Taxonomy

Some experts (M.A. Smith, 1931; Mertens, L. Müller & Rust, 1934) considered L. scutata to be a subspecies of L. punctata rather than its own species.

References

  1. ↑ Fritz, Uwe; Havaš, Peter (2007). "Checklist of Chelonians of the World" (PDF). Vertebrate Zoology. 57 (2): 316. ISSN 1864-5755. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-17. Retrieved 29 May 2012.

Further reading

  • Kuchling, Gerald (1995). "Turtles at a market in western Yunnan: Possible range extensions for some southern Asiatic chelonians in China and Myanmar". Chelonian Conserv. Biol. 1 (3): 223-226.
  • Peters W (1868). "Eine Mittheilung über eine neue Nagergattung, Chiropodomys pencillatus, so wie über einige neue oder weniger bekannte Amphibien und Fische ". Monatsberichte der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1868: 448-461 + two plates. (Emyda scutata, new species, p. 449). (in German).
  • Smith MA (1931). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. I.—Loricata, Testudines. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xxviii + 185 pp. + Plates I-II. (Lissemys punctata scutata, new combination, pp. 159–160 + Figure 34 on p. 155).
  • Webb RG (1982). "Taxonomic notes concerning the trionychid turtle Lissemys punctata (Lacepede)". Amphibia-Reptilia 3 (2-3): 179-184.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.