Spotted softshell turtle
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Spotted Softshell Turtle ( Cyclanorbis elegans ) |
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| ( Gray , 1869) |
The spotted softshell turtle , Nubian softshell turtle or spotted softshell turtle ( Cyclanorbis elegans ) is an endangered species of turtle from the family of softshell turtles (Trionychidae). It is considered to be the rarest turtle in Africa and one of the rarest in the world.
features
The spotted softshell turtle is the largest species of African freshwater turtle. Their rounded back armor can reach a length of up to 70 cm. The color is olive to brown, mottled with a multitude of yellowish or greenish spots along the armor flanks. In the juvenile animals there is a thin longitudinal keel and a number of small tubercles, but these disappear as they grow. Larger tubercles on the front of the carapace above the neck will last a lifetime. The plastron is yellowish with dark spots and has no thigh flaps. Two crescent-shaped large adhesions protect the intestines, and two smaller ones can be on the back of the plastron. The head is small, with a pointed, rather short snout in the shape of a double tube. The top of the head is brown, with yellow or light green wormline-shaped pigmentation . The chin and neck are lighter and have numerous small yellow dots. The front legs have four sickle-shaped transverse lamellae. All limbs are well webbed . The skin is brown on top and lighter on the bottom. The juvenile turtles, sprinkled with yellow spots, are very colorful.
This species is more colorful than the Senegalese softshell turtle ( Cyclanorbis senegalensis ) and the worm line effect on the greenish-brown background can be clearly seen.
distribution
This species has an extensive, but fragmented and disjointed range in Ghana , Togo , Nigeria , Cameroon , the Central African Republic , southern Chad , Sudan, and South Sudan .
Habitat and way of life
The spotted softshell turtle inhabits marshland and shallow waters, where it is locally sympatric with the Senegal softshell turtle. Their feeding and reproductive behavior has not been researched.
Systematics
John Edward Gray first described this form as Baikiea elegans in 1869 . George Albert Boulenger placed them in the genus Cyclanorbis in 1889 . In 1902 Friedrich Siebenrock described the new taxon Cyclanorbis oligotylus , which Sabet Girgis considered to be a junior synonym of Cyclanorbis elegans in 1961 .
status
The last known specimen in human care died in the USA in 2009 and from 2000 there were no more sightings in the wild, so that the extinction of this species was feared from 2015. In 2017 the ecologist Luca Luiselli succeeded in rediscovering a single specimen in South Sudan and in 2018 he was able to detect a residual population on the White Nile . The main threats are excessive hunting for the bushmeat market and habitat destruction.
literature
- Arthur Loveridge , Ernest Edward Williams : Revision of the African tortoises and turtles of the suborder Cryptodira. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 115, 1957, pp. 163-557
- Roger W. Barbour , Carl H. Ernst : Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 1989, ISBN 1-56098-212-8 , p. 114
- Franck Bonin, Bernard Devaux, Alain Dupré: Turtles of the World (translated from the French by Peter Pritchard ), Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore, 2006, pp. 119-120
- Patrick Joseph Baker, Tomas Diagne, Luca Luiselli: Cyclanorbis elegans (Gray 1869) - Nubian Flapshell Turtle In: Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN / SSC, Edition: Chelonian Research Monographs 5 (8): 089 , 2015, pp. 1–7
- Anders GJ Rhodin, John B. Iverson, Roger Bour , Uwe Fritz , Arthur Georges, H. Bradley Shaffer, Peter Paul van Dijk : Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status , 8. Edition, 2017, p. 159
- Gift Simon Demaya, John Sebit Benansio, Thomas Francis Lado, Tomas Diagne, Daniele Dendi, Luca Luiselli: Rediscovery of the Nubian Flapshell Turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans) in South Sudan Chelonian Conservation and Biology, Chelonian Research Foundation 2019, pp. 62-67
- Gift Simon Demaya, John Sebit Benansio, Thomas Francis Lado, Salah Khatir Jubarah, John Leju Celestino Ladu, Luca Luiselli: Local Ecological Knowledge in South Sudan Can Help Conservation and Management of Cyclanorbis elegans. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 18 (2), 2019 doi : 10.2744 / CCB-1377.1
Web links
- The Nubian valve softshell turtle
- Cyclanorbis elegans in The Reptile Database
- Cyclanorbis elegans inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019.2. Listed by: Baker, PJ, Luiselli, L. & Diagne, T., 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Baker, Diagne & Luiselli, 2015