| Australian short-necked turtles | |
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| Macquarie turtle Emydura macquarii | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Suborder: | Pleurodira |
| Family: | Chelidae |
| Subfamily: | Chelodininae |
| Genus: | Emydura Bonaparte, 1836 |
| Species | |
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6, and see text | |
| Synonyms | |
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Emydura, also known commonly as the Australian short-necked turtles, is a genus of turtles in the family Chelidae. The genus was paraphyletic with Elseya. Consequently, it was split into two genera Myuchelys and Elseya by Thomson and Georges in 2009. Turtles of the genus Emydura can grow quite large, 30 cm (12 in) or more is not unusual, and have a life span of around 20–30 years. They generally do not hibernate as their warmer climate lets them remain active all year round; they also spend more time in the water than other turtles. They are considered omnivorous but rely on a constant supply of meat to remain healthy, feeding on basically anything that will fit into their mouth. They are characterised by a white stripe starting at the nose and leading down the neck, as well as a more ridged shell. In Australia, the public require a basic reptiles licence to purchase these turtles; taking from the wild is strictly prohibited.
Species
Species and notable subspecies arranged according to most recent review of Georges & Thomson, 2010 with some modification after Kehlmaier et al. 2019 are:
- Northern red-faced turtle, Emydura australis, (Gray, 1841)
- Emydura gunaleni, Smales, McCord, Cann, & Joseph-Ouni, 2019
- Macquarie turtle, Emydura macquarii, (Gray, 1830)
- Murray river turtle, Emydura macquarii macquarii
- Krefft's turtle, Emydura macquarii krefftii
- Fraser island short-neck turtle, Emydura macquarii nigra
- Cooper creek turtle, Emydura macquarii emmotti
- Red-bellied short-necked turtle or Jardine River Turtle, Emydura subglobosa, (Krefft 1876)
- Red-bellied short-necked turtle, Emydura subglobosa subglobosa
- Worrell's short-necked turtle, Emydura subglobosa worrelli
- Northern yellow-faced turtle, Emydura tanybaraga, Cann, 1997
- Victoria river red-faced turtle, Emydura victoriae, (Gray 1841)
-
Kreftt's river turtle
References
- Bonaparte, C.L. 1836. Cheloniorum Tabula Analytica. Rome, 9 pp.
- ^ Georges, A. & Thomson, S. 2010. Diversity of Australasian freshwater turtles, with an annotated synonymy and keys to species. Zootaxa 2496: 1–37.
- Turtle Taxonomy Working Group . 2014. Turtles of the world, 7th edition: annotated checklist of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution with maps, and conservation status. In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Pritchard, P.C.H., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Iverson, J.B., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 5(7):000.329–479, doi:10.3854/ crm.5.000.checklist.v7.2014.
- Thomson, S. & Georges, A. (2009) Myuchelys gen. nov. —a new genus for Elseya latisternum and related forms of Australian freshwater turtle (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) Zootaxa 2053: 32–42.
- Fitzsimmons, Craig (24 December 2019). "Desert turtle thriving in outback's boom or bust drought conditions". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- Kehlmaier, C., Zhang, X., Georges, A., Campbell, P.D., Thomson, S., & Fritz, U. 2019. Mitogenomics of historical type specimens of Australasian turtles: clarification of taxonomic confusion and old mitochondrial introgression. Scientific Reports (2019) 9:5841 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42310-x
- 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.
- Krefft, G. 1876. Notes on Australian animals in New Guinea with description of a new freshwater tortoise belonging to the genus Euchelymys. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale de Genova. 1:390-394.
- Cann, J. 1997. The northern yellow-faced turtle. Monitor 9(1):24-29, 34–35.
- Gray, J.E. 1841. Description of some hitherto unrecorded species of Australian reptiles and batrachians. pp 51–57. in Gray, J.E. Zoological Miscellaney. London: Treutal, Wurtz and Co.
| Taxon identifiers | |
|---|---|
| Emydura | |