EMYSystem Text Only Species Page: Geochelone chilensis
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Testudinidae (Tortoises)
subfamily.......Testudininae ()
genus...............Geochelone (Typical Tortoises)
species..............Geochelone chilensis (Chaco Tortoise)
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- Original Description
- Gray 1870a : 190
- Syntypes
- (2 specimens) BMNH RR 1947.3.5.8; BMNH 1947.3.5.9, (both formerly BMNH 70.12.18.2)
- Type Locality
- "Chili" [= Chile, South America]; "Chili . . . N. Patagonia . . . Mendoza and the Pampas . . . Monte Video and Buenos Ayres . . .", according to Gray (1870b:707).
- Original name
- Testudo (gopher) chilensis
- Common Name
- Chaco Tortoise
- Distribution
- Argentina and Paraguay
- Comments
- Subgenus Chelonoidis according to Williams (1952:555); subgenus Gopher according to Bour (1984c). Includes Geochelone petersi (Freiberg, 1973), according to most authors, including Wermuth and Mertens (1977), Pritchard (1979), and Richard et al. (1990). In addition, although G. donosobarrosi (Freiberg, 1973:83) is considered a full species by many authors (e.g. Cei, 1986; Richard, 1988; Richard and de la Fuente, 1988; and King and Burke, 1989:73-75); and a subspecies of chilensis by others (e.g. Walker, in Swingland and Klemens, 1989), Buskirk (1992) was unable to distinguish between them morphometrically or meristically. Reviewed as G. chilensis by Groombridge (1982), Waller (1986), and Walker (in Swingland and Klemens, 1989).
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