Emydura macquarii

Murray River Turtle
Temporal range: Eocene–Recent
Macquarie Turtle
Emydura macquarii
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Pleurodira
Family: Chelidae
Subfamily: Chelodininae
Genus: Emydura
Species: E. macquarrii
Binomial name
Emydura macquarrii
Gray, 1830[1]
Subspecies
  • E. m. macquarrii Gray, 1830[1]
  • E. m. krefftii Gray, 1871[2]
  • E. m. nigra McCord, et al., 2003[3]
  • E. m. emmotti Cann, et al., 2003[4]
Synonyms

The Murray River Turtle (Emydura macquarii) is a wide ranging species that occurs throughout many of the rivers of the eastern half of Australia. It is found primarily in the Murray River Basin and all its major tributaries, along with a number of coastal rivers up the New South Wales Coast. It is also found in the coastal Queensland Rivers and the Cooper Creek System, along with Fraser Island.

Collection History and Discovery

This species has a long and complicated nomenclatural history including even its original description. The holotype was originally collected by René Primevère Lesson (1794–1849) and Prosper Garnot (1794–1838) in 1824. During an expedition on the La Coquille, captained by Louis Isidore Duperrey, which visited Sydney, Australia from 17 January - 25 March 1824. During this time it seems they visited Bathurst, and collected the holotype from the Macquarie River (Cann, 1998).[13]

The first description of the species was offered by Baron Georges Cuvier in 1929[14] but this description is nowadays seen as a nomen novem. Hence the description by John Edward Gray in 1831[1] is considered the valid description.

Etymology

The generic name Emydura is derived from the Greek emys (freshwater turtle) and the Greek oura (tail), Latinized to ura. Its grammatical gender is feminine. The specific epithet of the species refers to the turtle's type location: the Macquarie River, it would seem that species was not named after Governor Lachlan Macquarie for whom the river is also named after (Cann 1998[13]).

The species common names are Murray River Turtle, Murray River Tortoise, Macquarie Turtle, Murray Short Neck Turtle, etc.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Gray, J.E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class Reptilia. pp 1-110 in Griffith, E. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organisation by the Baron Cuvier. London: Whitaker and Treacher and Co. 9:481 + 110pp.
  2. ^ a b Gray, J.E. 1871. Notes on Australian freshwater tortoises. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (4)8:366.
  3. ^ a b McCord, W., Cann, J. and Joseph-Uoni, M. Fraser Island short-neck turtle, Emydura macquarii nigra ssp. nov. Reptilia 27: 62-63
  4. ^ a b Cann, J. McCord, W. and Joseph-Uoni, M. (2003) Emmort's short-neck turtle, Emydura macquarii emmotti ssp. nov. Reptilia 27: 60-61
  5. ^ a b Georges, A. & Thomson, S. 2010. Diversity of Australasian freshwater turtles, with an annotated synonymy and keys to species. Zootaxa 2496: 1–37.
  6. ^ a b Anders G.J. Rhodin, Peter Paul van Dijk, John B. Iverson, and H. Bradley Shaffer. 2010. Turtles of the World, 2010 Update: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status
  7. ^ Gray, J.E.1841. A catalogue of the species of reptiles and amphibia hitherto described as inhabiting Australia, with a description of some new species from Western Australia. Appendix E in Grey, G. 1841:422-449.
  8. ^ Gray, J.E. 1871. On Euchelymys a new genus and two new species of Australian freshwater tortoises. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. (4)8:117-118.
  9. ^ Boulenger, G.A. 1889. Catalogue of the Chelonians, Rhynchocephalians, and Crocodiles in the British Museum (Natural History). New Edition. 311 pp. British Museum (Natural History), London.
  10. ^ Ahl, E. 1932. Beschreibung einer neuen Schildkrote aus Australien. Sber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin 1932:127-129
  11. ^ a b c d Cann, J. 1998. Australian Freshwater Turtles. Beaumont Publishing, Singapore. 292pp.
  12. ^ a b Gray, J.E. 1872. On the genus Chelymys and its allies from Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1872:504-514.
  13. ^ a b Cann, J. 1998. Australian Freshwater Turtles. Beumont Publishing, Singapore. pp. 101
  14. ^ Cuvier, G. L. C. F. D. 1829. Le Regne Animal. Vol. 2 XV. Paris: Deterville, pp. 406 (ii)