Negev Tortoise

Negev Tortoise
Specimen at the Western Negev
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Testudinidae
Genus: Testudo
Species: T. werneri
Binomial name
Testudo werneri
Perälä, 2001[1]
Black - regionally extinct
Red - current distribution

The Negev tortoise (scientific name:Testudo werneri ) is a species of tortoise endemic to the Negev Desert in southern Israel. T. werneri was once thought to be a subspecies of Kleinmann's tortoise (T. kleinmanni ). It was once found in the Sinai Peninsula but has gone regionally extinct due to loss of habitat. In Israel it is protected by law and several conservation programs, and the local population trend is rising.

Etymology

The specific name, werneri, is in honor of Israeli herpetologist Yehudah L. Werner.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Testudo kleinmanni ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. ↑ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Testudo werneri, p. 282).

Further reading

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