North American Recent Soft-Shelled Turtles (Family Trionychidae)Webb, Robert G. (Robert Gravem)
Science
North American Recent Soft-Shelled Turtles (Family Trionychidae)
Webb, Robert G. (Robert Gravem)
Soft-shelled turtles
Pattern on side of head and snout of little diagnostic value;
postocular stripe usually interrupted, but configuration variable,
consisting of pale anterior, dark-bordered segment (just behind eye);
posterior segment of postocular stripe usually less well-defined and
generally blending with adjacent ground color; pale postocular stripe
sometimes uninterrupted and dark-bordered throughout its length (TU
10157, 10159, 10176); pattern on dorsal surface of snout variable;
pattern usually consisting of uninterrupted dark line (slightly curved
anteriorly) connecting anterior margins of orbits (TU 10161, 10164,
10159, 10143), or dark line interrupted (TU 10153, 10154, 10176),
absent (TU 10163), or present in addition to dark inner borders of
pale stripes that extend anteriorly from eyes (TU 10149, 10162);
small, often fine, dark markings, on dorsal surface of limbs,
especially forelimbs; ventral surface of plastron and soft parts of
body usually whitish, lacking markings; small blackish spots
occasionally in region of bridge (TU 10149); dark marks occurring on
webbing of limbs and often encroaching on soles and palms.
Ontogenetic variation in PL/HW, mean PL/HW of specimens having
plastral lengths 7.0 centimeters or less, 3.83, and exceeding 7.0
centimeters, 5.18; ontogenetic variation in CL/CW, mean CL/CW of
specimens having plastron lengths 8.5 centimeters or less, 1.14, and
exceeding 8.5 centimeters, 1.22; mean CL/PCW, 2.11; mean HW/SL, 1.38
(including subspecies _pallidus_); mean CL/PL, 1.37.
_Variation._--Two hatchlings (ANSP 13447, Bexar County; TNHC 1446,
McMullen County) more closely resemble _pallidus_ than
_guadalupensis_.
Some individuals from the Colorado River drainage have features
suggesting those that are characteristic of _pallidus_. Large females
have obtuse, knoblike somewhat triangular-shaped tubercles along the
anterior edge of the carapace, which are never conelike (TU 14439-40,
10187, 16036.1; BCB 6010). The tubercles along the anterior edge of
the carapace are more elevated than in turtles from drainage systems
west of the Colorado. Whitish spots are usually absent anteriorly on
the carapace, but may be evident through the mottled pattern of large
females (BCB 6010, plastral length, 19.7 cm.). The pale postocular
stripe is usually interrupted, whereas the dark line connecting the
anterior margins of the orbits is usually not interrupted; the two
characters last mentioned show alliance with _guadalupensis_.
The carapace of hatchlings from the Colorado River is pale having
whitish dots, smaller anteriorly than posteriorly, which may be
encircled with dusky ocelli (TNHC 20257) or not (ANSP 11889, BCB 5055,
SM 3282). Many hatchlings are not distinguishable from _pallidus_
(TCWC 7262, TNHC 4975, SM 4924, 6106). I have not seen hatchlings from
the Colorado River that resemble ANSP 16717.
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