Nilssonia (turtle)

Nilssonia is a genus of softshell turtles (family Trionychidae). In many treatments, it is monotypic, with the single species Burmese Peacock Softshell (N. formosa). However, the supposed other genus of peacock softshells, Aspideretes, is even closer related to N. formosa than was previously believed. They differ only in the neural plates between the first pleural scale pair of the bony carapace, which are fused into one in N. formosa and unfused in the others.^[1]

Thus, it has been proposed to unite the two genera under the older name, Nilssonia. As it seems, the closest living relatives of the Burmese peacock softshell are the Ganges Soft-shelled Turtle (A./N. gangeticus) and the Nagpur Soft-shelled Turtle (A./N. leithii), making the merging of the genera well warranted.^[1]

Species

If the genera are united there are five species:

• Burmese softshell turtle Nilssonia formosa (Gray, 1869)
• Ganges softshell turtle Nilssonia gangetica (Cuvier, 1825)
• Peacock softshell turtle Nilssonia hurum (Gray, 1831)
• Nagpur softshell turtle Nilssonia leithii (Gray, 1872)
• Black softshell turtle Nilssonia nigricans (Anderson, 1875)

Footnotes

References

• Praschag, P.; Hundsdörfer, A.K.; Reza, A.H.M.A. & Fritz, U. (2007): Genetic evidence for wild-living Aspideretes nigricans and a molecular phylogeny of South Asian softshell turtles (Reptilia: Trionychidae: Aspideretes, Nilssonia). Zool. Scripta 36(4): 301–310. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2007.00282.x (HTML abstract)

v t e Turtle family Trionychidae Genus Species of the subfamily Cyclanorbinae Cyclanorbis Nubian flapshell turtle Senegal flapshell turtle Cycloderma Aubry's flapshell turtle Zambezi flapshell turtle Lissemys Burmese flapshell turtle Indian flapshell turtle Sri Lankan flapshell turtle   Species of the subfamily Trionychinae Amyda Asiatic softshell turtle Apalone Florida softshell turtle Smooth softshell turtle Spiny softshell turtle Chitra Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle Burmese narrow-headed softshell turtle Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle Dogania Malayan softshell turtle Nilssonia Black softshell turtle Burmese peacock softshell Indian softshell turtle Indian peacock softshell turtle Leith's softshell turtle Palea Wattle-necked softshell turtle Pelochelys Cantor's giant softshell turtle New Guinea giant softshell turtle Northern New Guinea giant softshell turtle Pelodiscus Chinese softshell turtle Hunan softshell turtle Lesser Chinese softshell turtle Northern Chinese softshell turtle Rafetus Euphrates softshell turtle Yangtze giant softshell turtle Trionyx African softshell turtle Phylogenetic arrangement based on turtles of the world 2011 update: annotated checklist.