| Chelidae Temporal range: Albian–Recent |
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| Chelus fimbriatus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Suborder: | Pleurodira |
| Family: | Chelidae Gray, 1831[1] |
| Genera | |
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The Chelidae are one of three living families of the turtle suborder Pleurodira and are commonly called the Austro-South American side neck turtles.[2] The family is distributed in Australia, New Guinea, parts of Indonesia and throughout most of South America. It is a large family of turtles with a significant fossil history going back to the Cretaceous. The family is entirely Gondwanan in origin, with no members found outside of Gondwana, either in the present day or as a fossil.[3]
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Like all pleurodirous turtles, the chelids withdraw their necks sideways into the shell, differing from cryptodires that fold their necks in the vertical plane. They are all highly aquatic species with webbed feet and the capacity to stay submerged for long periods of time. The snake-necked species (genera Chelus, Chelodina and Hydromedusa) are largely strike and gape hunters or foragers feeding on fish, invertebrates and gastropods. The short necked forms are largely herbivorous or molluscivorous but are also opportunistic, several species have specialized to eating fruits.
The highly aquatic nature of the group is typified by the presence of cloacal breathing in some species of the genera Elseya and Rheodytes.[4] However, some species such as the Eastern Long-Neck Turtle (Chelodina longicollis) from Australia spend significant periods of time on land and are considered highly terrestrial.
The smaller members of the family include the Macleay River Turtle (Emydura macquarii) at around 16 cm,[5] Twist-necked turtle (Platemys platycephala) at 18 cm and the Western Swamp Turtle (Pseudemydura umbrina) at 15 cm, whereas the larger species such as the Mata mata (Chelus fimbriata) and the White-Throated Snapping Turtle (Elseya albagula) both exceed 45 cm in shell length.[6]
| Members of Chelidae have unique shell morphology. The carapace often has reduced surface exposure of neural bones, or even none at all (Thomson & Georges, 1996).[7] This is due to less requirement for enlarged longissimus dorsi muscles in side necked turtles (Thomson, 2003).[8]
The inside of the carapace is often heavily buttressed. This has sometimes been seen as a defense mechanism, that is it increases the strength of the shell against biting force, however Thomson (2003[8]) demonstrated it is linked to feeding methods and the prevention of internal torsion of the shell. Chelid's also lack Mesoplastra which separates them from the Pelomedusidae. The cervical scute is usually present though it is absent in some species of Elseya and Myuchelys. Otherwise the carapace has the usual complement of 4 costals, 5 vertebrals and 12 marginals (per side). Internally the carapace is made of 8 pleurals (per side), 11 peripherals (per side), a nuchal at the front and a suprapygal and pygal at the rear of the shell. As noted earlier neurals although always present often exist as subsurface elements above the vertebral column.[7] The plastron of chelids does not contain any hinges as can appear in some cryptodire turtles. The scute pattern is a unique feature of the Pleurodira and can be used to immediately identify a shell as belonging to this suborder. All cryptodire's have 12 plastral scutes whereas pleurodires have 13. The extra scute is called the intergular. The rest of the scutes and the skeletal structure beneath them are the same as all turtles: paired gulars, humerals, pectorals, abdominals, and anals. The skeletal elements consist of a single entoplaston, as well as paired epiplastra, entoplastra, hyoplastra, hypoplastra and xiphiplastra (Pritchard & Trebbau, 1984).[9] |
There have been a number of theories of the relationshps within the large chelid family. Using shared derived characters an early attempt in the 1970s used strict parsimony to determine that the 3 long-necked genera (Chelodina, Chelus and Hydromedusa) were each others closest relatives (Gaffney, 1977).[10] This was accepted for sometime but brought into scrutiny by Pritchard (1984)[11] who discussed the major differences between the 3 genera showing that they all appeared to have evolved independently of each other, hinging on the fact that although they had long-necks, how they used them and the structural differences were different.
A number of additional datasets were developed that used electrophoresis and nuclear and mtDNA analysis these all agreed on the independent evolution of the 3 long-necked clades (Georges et al. 1998,[12] Seddon et al., 1997[13]). This was culminated in a re-analysis of the morphological data which demonstrated the convergence of the 3 clades on a sweep of distinctive features needed for their piscivorous diet (Thomson, 2003,[14] Thomson, 2000.[15] The 3 sub-families within Chelidae show the monophyly of the majority of the South American species and all the Australian species, with the far more ancient Hydromedusa as sister taxon to both these other groups.
The family Chelidae contains approximately 60 species within around 20 genera. The following is based on Georges et al. 1998.[12]
Suborder Pleurodira
| Key to Australasian Chelidae |
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1 Forelimbs each with five claws; gular scutes separated by the intergular; intergular scute in broad contact with the anterior margin of the plastron 2 2 Intergular scute not in contact with the pectoral scutes 3 3 Suture between the second and third costal scutes contacting the seventh marginal scute; suture between the third and fourth costal scutes contacting the ninth marginal scute 4 4 Surface of the temporal region covered with distinct regular scales or low tubercles; dorsal surface of the head with a prominent head shield which may be entire or fragmented; cervical scute present or absent 5 5 Precloacal tail length greater than postcloacal length only in adult males; tail round in cross section; cloacal orifice round; tail always shorter than half of carapace length 6 6 Prominent alveolar ridge on the triturating surfaces of the mouth; cervical scute absent (except as a rare variant); no prominent process of the head shield extending down the parietal ridge toward the tympanum Elseya |
Relationships of the living forms based on Georges et al., 1998.[12]
| Chelidae |
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