EMYSystem Text Only Family Page: Kinosternidae
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Kinosternidae (American Mud and Musk Turtles)
subfamily
genus
species
subfamily list
Kinosterninae
Staurotypinae
Note - informational or help links appear in red.
- Original Description
- Agassiz 1857 : 347
- Original name
- Cinosternoidea
- Common Name
- American Mud and Musk Turtles
- Distribution
- The Americas
- Comments
- Bour and Dubois (1984c) discuss the history of the family name. All Mexican forms reviewed by Smith and Smith (1979). Phylogenetic relationships based on protein variation are discussed by Seidel et al. (1986); those based on neural bone patterns by Iverson (1988); and those based on morphology by Iverson (1991) and Hutchison (1991). Hutchison and Bramble (1981) and Bramble et al. (1984) discuss plastral morphology. Bickham and Carr (1983) consider the staurotypines a distinct family based on karyotypes (that arrangement followed by King and Burke, 1989:67); however, this arrangement is not supported by the morphological studies mentioned above or by Gaffney and Meylan (1988) and Meylan and Gaffney (1989:56).
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