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
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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