EMYSystem Text Only Species Page: Pseudemys concinna
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Emydidae (Pond Turtles)
subfamily.......Deirochelyinae ()
genus...............Pseudemys (Cooter Turtles)
species..............Pseudemys concinna (River Cooter)
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- Original Description
- LeConte 1830 : 106
- Syntypes
- (number uncertain) a specimen in the MNHN is being designated as lectotype by R. Bour pers. comm.
- Type Locality
- "Inhabits in rivers of Georgia and Carolina, where the beds are rocky. I have never seen them below Augusta on the Savannah, or Columbia on the Congaree"; restricted by Schmidt (1953:101) to the "vicinity of Columbia [Richland Co.], South Carolina" [USA]
- Original name
- Testudo concinna
- Common Name
- River Cooter
- Distribution
- Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, Mexico to southeastern New Mexico, southern Illinois, eastern Virginia, and Florida, USA
- Comments
- Subgenus Pseudemys. This is a distinctive species (see Ward, 1984) despite suggestions by some authors (e.g., Fahey, 1980; and Fritz, 1981a) that it is synonymous with Pseudemys floridana; however, the distributions of these two forms are unclear, in part because they apparently hybridize in some areas (see Mount, 1975, and Dundee and Rossman, 1989; among others). See reviews in Smith and Smith (1979) and Seidel (1981). No type specimen for Ptychemys hoyi (= Pseudemys concinna) was designated by Agassiz (1857:433), nor was any locality information provided; however, if it can be determined that the specimens available to Agassiz were from within the range of P. c. metteri, then hoyi (the older name) would be the valid name for that subspecies. P. c. hieroglyphica includes P. c. mobilensis (Holbrook 1838:53) according to Ward (1984:39). Ernst (1990a) elevated the subspecies gorzugi to full species status without any analysis.
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