EMYSystem Text Only Species Page: Podocnemis unifilis
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Podocnemidae ()
subfamily.......no_subfamily
genus...............Podocnemis (South American Side-necked River Turtles)
species..............Podocnemis unifilis (Yellow-spotted River Turtle)
Note - informational or help links appear in red.
- Original Description
- Troschel 1848 : 647
- Holotype
- ZMB 142; now lost.
- Type Locality
- "im Rupununi und Takutu " [= rivers in Guyana (formerly British Guiana)]
- Original name
- Podocnemis unifilis
- Common Name
- Yellow-spotted River Turtle
- Distribution
- Orinoco to Amazon River drainages of Venezuela, eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, northeastern Peru, the Guianas, Brazil, and northern Bolivia
- Comments
- Reviewed by Groombridge (1982) and Pritchard and Trebbau (1984). Mittermeier and Wilson (1974) and Wermuth and Mertens (1977) suggested that Emys cayennensis Schweigger (1812:298) may be an older available name for this species. Based on Fretey's (1977:111) information about the type species of Emys cayennensis Schweigger and Emys dumeriliana Schweigger, Hoogmoed and Gruber (1983:346) concluded that E. cayennensis was a junior synonym of P. expansa and that E. dumeriliana was an older available name for P. unifilis. However, following Roger Bour's suggestion, Pritchard and Trebbau (1984:72) showed that the holotype of E. cayennensis (MNHN 8359) is a P. unifilis. The proper name for this species may thus be P. cayennensis, although the more stable name P. unifilis is retained here until the ICZN can act on the problem.
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