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
_Description of holotype._--Carapace nearly circular, widest at level
of posterior border of hypoplastra; margin entire; dorsal surface
"sandpapery" to touch; pale rim separated from ground color of
carapace by well-defined, blackish line that is wavy and narrowly
interrupted posteriorly and anteriorly; pale rim approximately 1.8
times wider posteriorly (5.4 mm.) than laterally (3.0 mm.); pale rim
increasingly narrower anteriorly, absent in nuchal region; tubercles
in nuchal region low, scarcely elevated, lacking sharp tips; ground
color of carapace olive having pattern of whitish spots and small
tubercles; most whitish tubercles inconspicuous pinpoints; other small
tubercles in center of whitish spots, mostly approximately 2
millimeters in diameter; largest white spot 3.4 millimeters in
diameter; most white spots surrounded by blackish ocelli or parts
thereof; whitish spots distributed over entire surface of carapace;
certain features of bony carapace evident through overlying skin;
carapace highest in region of second and third neurals, forming
obtuse, gently sloping, vertebral, keel; undersurface of carapace
butterscotch yellow, lacking markings; maximum length, 16.5
centimeters; greatest width, 13.5 centimeters.
Plastral surface butterscotch yellow, lacking markings, extending
slightly farther forward than carapace; anterior and posterior lobes
rounded; anterior lobe slightly truncate; certain features of bony
elements of plastron visible through overlying skin; maximum length of
plastron, 12.0 centimeters.
Head, extended to posterior level of eyes, terminating in flexible
snout; septal ridges projecting into each rounded nostril; jaws
closed, each covered by fleshy lips except anteriorly where horny
portions exposed; dark triangular mark in front of eyes, base line
connecting anterior margins of orbits forming series of dots; pale
stripes extending forward from eyes having faint inner, blackish
borders; eyelids partly open having blackish dots; pale subocular
blotch on right side of head having border of black dots.
Forefeet and hind feet well-webbed having five digits each; each limb
having nails on first three digits; each forelimb with four
antebrachial scales, three of these having free edge; each hind limb
with two horny scales, one smooth on posterodorsal surface and other
with free edge on posteroventral surface; pattern toward insertion of
forelimbs indistinct.
Tail terminating in flexible point; penis exposed; cloacal opening
extending beyond posterior edge of carapace; tail olive above bordered
by blackish marks; few black dots laterally on left side.
Undersurface of soft parts of body buff, lacking markings; few dark
marks posteriorly on webbing of limbs, encroaching on soles and palms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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