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
Notes on coloration (judged to be the most common or "normal" type)
of living _emoryi_ from the Río Mesquites, central Coahuila, are:
Adult male (KU 53753)--pale rim butterscotch yellow; marginal line
blackish; whitish dots on pale brown or tan carapace; soft parts of
body olive or olive-green, slightly darker on head and paler
(yellowish) on hind limbs; pale areas on side of head pale yellow,
having tint of orange on neck; ventral surface white, yellow laterally
on neck. Adult female (KU 53754)--carapace having contrasting blotched
and mottled pattern of pale browns and tans; soft parts of body olive
brown, darker brown blotching on head; dorsal surface of limbs
olive-green having pale areas lemon yellow and webbing butterscotch
yellow; side of neck and head, chin and throat pale lemon yellow;
ventral surface white having slight red tinge to groin and soft parts
posteriorly; underside of carapace near edge pale yellow.
Softshells from the Río Grande in the Big Bend region of Texas, and
the Río Conchos in Chihuahua differ from other specimens of _emoryi_.
Fifteen adult males, KU 51187-201 (no females in sample), were taken
from the mouth of the Río San Pedro at Meoquí, Chihuahua (see KU
51194, Pl. 44). They are noteworthy because of a conspicuous orange or
orange-yellow on the side of the head. Another relatively consistent
character is the blackish tip of snout (excepting 51199), although the
degree (palest on 51190) and extent of pigmentation posteriorly on the
snout is variable. Eleven males, KU 51175-85, from approximately 100
miles northeastward in the Río Conchos near Ojinaga, Chihuahua, also
have the bright orange on the side of the head; the tip of the snout
is not blackish, although in some it is slightly darkened. Three
females, KU 51174, 51186 (from Ojinaga) and 51173 (from 8 mi. S, 16
mi. W Ojinaga), lack the orange on the side of the head; KU 51186 has
a plastral length of 8.0 centimeters, whereas the other two females
have the same plastral length of 16.5 centimeters (larger than any
male). Nineteen adult males, KU 51965-72, 51980-90, from the Río
Grande near Lajitas also have the orangish coloration on the side of
the head, whereas twenty females, KU 51954-64, 51973-79, 51991-92
(three smaller than largest male) lack the coloration. The tip of the
snout is not blackish on any turtle in the series from Lajitas. The
smallest female, from Lajitas, having a plastral length of 6.9
centimeters, has a mottled carapace.
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