EMYSystem Text Only Family Page: Pelomedusidae
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Pelomedusidae (Afro-American Side-necked Turtles)
subfamily.......no_subfamily
genus
species
genera list
Pelomedusa
Pelusios
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Note - informational or help links appear in red.
- Original Description
- Cope 1868a : 119
- Original name
- None
- Common Name
- Afro-American Side-necked Turtles
- Distribution
- South America and Africa (including Madagascar and the Seychelles Islands).
- Comments
- African species reviewed by Loveridge (1941); South American species by Pritchard and Trebbau (1984). Karyotypes are reviewed by Bull and Legler (1980) and serological variation is discussed by Frair (1980). Bour and Dubois (1984a) discuss the uncertain validity of the family name. Gaffney and Meylan (1988) recommended the division of this family into the Pelomedusinae (Pelomedusa and Pelusios) and the Podocneminae (Erymnochelys, Peltocephalus, and Podocnemis), and de Broin (1988:105) recommended that those two higher taxa both be elevated to family status.
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