American terrapins
| American terrapins | ||||||||||||
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Guatemala Magnificent Earth Tortoise |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the subfamily | ||||||||||||
| Rhinoclemmydinae | ||||||||||||
| JE Gray , 1873 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Rhinoclemmys | ||||||||||||
| Fitzinger , 1835 |
The American terrapins ( Rhinoclemmys ) are a genus of tortoises from Central and South America. They are the only representatives of the Old World pond turtles found in the New World.
features
The American tortoises reach carapace lengths of 20 to 32 centimeters. The carapace is low curved to arched and keeled in the middle. Each neural shield above the vertebral arch is hexagonal and protrudes from behind the connected, lateral costal bone. The plastron is stiff and well supported. One joint is missing. The short skull is flattened to slightly arched with dorsal, lateral eye sockets. The four aquatic species - Rhinoclemmys funera , Rhinoclemmys nasuta , Rhinoclemmys punctularia and Rhinoclemmys melanosterna - have more or less pronounced webs on the hind feet.
habitat
The American terrapins inhabit aquatic, semi-aquatic or terrestrial habitats. These include rainforests, savannahs, marshland, marshland, ponds, streams, and rivers in wet forests, scrubland, wet woodlands, and gallery forests.
Systematics
There are nine types with several subspecies:
- Brown earth turtle ( Rhinoclemmys annulata (Gray, 1860)) - Distribution: southeastern Honduras, eastern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador
- Furrowed earth turtle ( Rhinoclemmys areolata (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1851)) - Distribution: Mexico (Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, Yucatán, Cozumel), Belize, eastern Guatemala
- Diademed tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys diademata (Mertens, 1954)) (sometimes considered a subspecies of the Guiana tortoise) - Distribution: Colombia and Venezuela
- Abdominal striped terrapin ( Rhinoclemmys funerea (Cope, 1876)) - Distribution: Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
- Colombian earth turtle ( Rhinoclemmys melanosterna (Gray, 1861)) - Distribution: Panama, Colombia, Ecuador
- Ecuadorian tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys nasuta (Boulenger, 1902)) - Distribution: Colombia, northwestern Ecuador
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Great Earth Tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima (Gray, 1855)) - Distribution: Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica
- Guerrero's great terrapin ( Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima pulcherrima (Gray, 1855))
- Guatemalan Great Tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima incisa (Bocourt, 1868))
- Costa Rican terrestrial turtle ( Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima manni (Dunn, 1930))
- Sonoran painted wood turtle ( Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima rogerbarbouri (Ernst, 1978))
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South American tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys punctularia (Daudin, 1801)) - Distribution: Eastern Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Trinidad
- Guiana terrapin ( Rhinoclemmys punctularia punctularia Daudin, 1801)
- Venezuela earth turtle ( Rhionclemmys punctularia flammigera Paolillo, 1985)
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Spotted tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys rubida (Cope, 1870)) - Distribution: Mexico
- Oaxacan tortoise ( Rhinoclemmys rubida rubida (Cope, 1870))
- Colima earth turtle ( Rhinoclemmys rubida perixantha (Mosimann & Rann, 1953))
literature
- Holger Vetter: Turtles of the World. = Turtles of the world. Volume 3: Central and South Africa. = Central and South America. Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-930612-82-8 .
- Roger W. Barbour, Carl H. Ernst: Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC et al. 1989 ISBN 0-87474-414-8 .
