EMYSystem Text Only Species Page: Geochelone elegans
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Testudinidae (Tortoises)
subfamily.......Testudininae ()
genus...............Geochelone (Typical Tortoises)
species..............Geochelone elegans (Indian Star Tortoise)
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- Original Description
- Schoepff 1794 : 111
- Holotype
- Not located, but Schoepff 1794 stated that the specimen illustrated was from the "Museis Hagae Comitis et Harlemi" [possibly in the TSMHN in Haarlem, Netherlands].
- Type Locality
- "India orientali"
- Original name
- Testudo elegans
- Common Name
- Indian Star Tortoise
- Distribution
- India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka
- Comments
- Subgenus Geochelone according to Bour (1984c). Wallin (1977) showed that a Linnaean type of Testudo geometrica is this species rather than Psammobates geometricus (see Comment under that species). Reviewed by Smith (1931; as Testudo elegans), Tikader and Sharma (1985), Moll (in Swingland and Klemens, 1989), and Das (1991).
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