EMYSystem Text Only Species Page: Testudo horsfieldii
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order..........TESTUDINES (turtles, tortoises and terrapins)
family...........Testudinidae (Tortoises)
subfamily.......Testudininae ()
genus...............Testudo (Palearctic Tortoises)
species..............Testudo horsfieldii (Central Asian Tortoise)
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- Original Description
- Gray 1844 : 7
- Holotype
- BMNH 1947.3.4.3
- Type Locality
- "India, Affghanistan [sic]"; specifically "Kabul", according to Gray (1844:iv)
- Original name
- Testudo horsfieldii
- Common Name
- Central Asian Tortoise
- Distribution
- From the region of the Caspian Sea, eastward through Kazakhstan (USSR) to western Xinjiang, China (PRC), and southward to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
- Comments
- Subgenus Agrionemys. Reviewed by Smith (1931), Nikolsky (1915), Stubbs (in Swingland and Klemens, 1989), and Das (1991). The fact that this species hybridized with T. hermanni in captivity (Kirsche, 1984) suggests that the subgenera of Loveridge and Williams (1957) are invalid (see also Crumly, 1988, and Bour, 1988c).
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