Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. Kyphosis and other Variations in Soft-shelled Turtles BY HOBART M. SMITH University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 1, No. 6, pp. 117-124 July 7, 1947 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1947 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Donald S. Farner, Donald F. Hoffmeister Volume 1, No. 6, pp. 117-124 July 7, 1947 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1947 [Illustration] 21-6301 Kyphosis and other Variations in Soft-shelled Turtles By HOBART M. SMITH Kyphotic (hump-backed) soft-shelled turtles have been known for many years in Asia and America. Gressitt (Peking Natural History Bulletin, 2 (pt. 4): 413-415, figs. 1-5, 1937) has reviewed accounts of such turtles, and recorded the anomaly in _Amyda sinensis_ (Wiegmann) and _A. steindachneri_ (Siebenrock) of Asia and in unidentified species in the United States. Records of kyphosis in American species apparently are few. Three skeletons in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History demonstrate occurrence of the condition in at least 3 American species: _Amyda emoryi_ (Agassiz), _A. mutica_ (Le Sueur) and _A. spinifera_ (Le Sueur). The specimen of _A. emoryi_ (Catalog No. 2219) was taken at Phoenix, Maricopa Co., Arizona, by Victor H. Householder, on May 1, 1926. The second specimen, called to my attention by C. W. Hibbard, was taken in 1936 from the Kansas River at Lawrence, Douglas Co., Kansas, by Max Wheatley, to whom I am indebted for the accompanying photographs and permission to describe the specimen which he has added to the Museum's collections (No. 23230). The identity of No. 23230 is established as _A. mutica_ by the absence of spines (see fig. 3) and by a number of cranial characters. The specimen of _A. spinifera_ (No. 23026) is without locality data; its identification is verified by the presence of spines on the front of the carapace. In the specimen of _A. mutica_ (see figures) the hump forms a smooth, high curve, closely resembling the condition in Gressitt's specimens of _A. steindachneri_ (_op. cit._: fig. 1). In the other two the hump is lower and its apex forms a relatively sharp angle; in the specimen of _A. spinifera_ the posterior face of the hump is more nearly vertical than the anterior face. In _A. emoryi_ the rear edge of the apex is sharply inclined (at an angle of about 45°), whereas the remainder of the surface slants at an angle of about 35°.