EMYSystem Text Only Species Page: Pelodiscus sinensis
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Trionychidae (Softshell Turtles)
subfamily.......Trionychinae (Common Softshell Turtles)
genus...............Pelodiscus (Chinese Softshell Turtles)
species..............Pelodiscus sinensis (Chinese Softshell Turtle)
Note - informational or help links appear in red.
- Original Description
- Wiegmann 1835 : 189
- Syntypes
- (3 specimens) ZMB 38; ZMB 39 (extant); ZMB 37 (lost).
- Type Locality
- "kleinen Insel im Tigerflusse, dicht bei Macao" (= small island in the Tiger River near Macao) [China]; see Comment
- Original name
- Trionyx (aspidonectes) sinensis
- Common Name
- Chinese Softshell Turtle
- Distribution
- USSR (extreme southeastern Siberia), China (from Manchuria to Taiwan and Hainan islands), Korea, Japan, and northern Vietnam; introduced into Hawaii, USA (McKeown and Webb, 1982
- Comments
- Reviewed by Smith (1931; as Trionyx sinensis), Pope (1935; as Amyda sinensis), Bourret (1941; as Trionyx sinensis), Ernst and Barbour (1972; as Trionyx sinensis), and Meylan (1987). The type of Testudo rostrata (Thunberg, 1787:179) in the Uppsala Museum in Sweden is not Amyda cartilaginea as usually recorded (e.g., Wermuth and Mertens, 1977:107); it has been identified as Pelodiscus sinensis by Webb (1985:84). The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature was petitioned (Case 2693; Webb, 1990a) to suppress the earlier name and conserve Wiegmann's name; conservation of the latter was mandated by ICZN Opinion 1659 (in 1991).
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