Fujian pond turtle

The Fujian pond turtle ("Mauremys" × iversoni) is a possibly also naturally occurring intergeneric hybrid turtle in the Geoemydidae family (formerly Bataguridae) produced in larger numbers by Chinese turtle farms as a "copy" of the golden coin turtle Cuora trifasciata. It appears to occur in China and Vietnam. Before its actual origin became known, it was listed as data deficient in the IUCN Red List.

The parents of this hybrid are the Asian yellow pond turtle and the golden coin turtle, with the male apparently usually of the latter species. While it is not unusual for perfectly valid geoemydid species to arise from hybridization, recognition as a species would require that the hybrids are fertile and constitute a phenotypically distinct and self-sustaining lineage. This does not appear to be the case in this "species" as only single specimens have been found rather than an entire population of these turtles and captive breeding has rarely been successful as most males proved to be infertile (while females are fully fertile).^[1]

The Fujian pond turtle's scientific name was given in dedication to John Iverson.

See also

• "Mauremys" × pritchardi
• "Ocadia" × glyphistoma
• Ocadia philippeni
• Cuora serrata

References

Footnotes

General sources

• Asian Turtle Trade Working Group (2000). Mauremys iversoni. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 29 July 2007.
• Buskirk, James R.; Parham, James F. & Feldman, Chris R. (2005): On the hybridisation between two distantly related Asian turtles (Testudines: Sacalia × Mauremys). Salamandra 41: 21-26. PDF fulltext
• Parham, James Ford; Simison, W. Brian; Kozak, Kenneth H.; Feldman, Chris R. & Shi, Haitao (2001): New Chinese turtles: endangered or invalid? A reassessment of two species using mitochondrial DNA, allozyme electrophoresis and known-locality specimens. Animal Conservation 4(4): 357–367. HTML abstract Erratum: Animal Conservation 5(1): 86 HTML abstract