Elseya branderhorsti (OUWENS, 1914)

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Higher Taxa	Chelidae, Chelodininae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: New Guinea Snapping Turtle
Synonym	Emydura branderhorsti OUWENS 1914 (fide GOODE 1967) Emydura branderhorsti — DE ROOIJ 1915: 320 Emydura branderhorsti — WERMUTH & MERTENS 1977 Elseya branderhorsti — BOUR et al. in DAVID 1994 Elseya branderhorsti — THOMSON et al. 1997 Elseya branderhorsti — FRITZ & HAVAS 2007: 328 Elseya branderhorsti — GEORGES & THOMSON 2010 Elseya (Elseya) branderhorsti — THOMSON et al. 2015 Elseya (Elseya) branderhorsti — TTWG 2017: 193 Elseya branderhorsti — TTWG 2021 Elseya branderhorsti — TTWG 2025
Distribution	Papua New Guinea Type locality: Southern New Guinea, 8° 50' 58.6896" S., 141° 14' 52.944" E. = neotype locality.
Reproduction	oviparous.
Types	Neotype: PNGM R25201, designated by THOMSON et al. 2015. Holotype: non-existent or lost; described from a live specimen (GEORGES & THOMSON 2010)
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: Diagnosed by the following characters: prominent head shield, cervical scute absent, prominent alveolar ridge on the triturating surfaces, carapace usually uniformly dark, lacking any regular spots; plastron uniformly cream or yellow (white in hatchlings and small juveniles); iris typically indistinct, dark, similar in color to the surrounding sclera (liquid eyes); large adult size. Affinities lie with Elseya dentata in Australia [from THOMSON et al. 2015].
Comment	Similar species: Commonly confused with Elseya rhodini because of its superficial resemblance. Elseya novaeguineae is similar too, but occurs in a different area. Habitat: freshwater (rivers, swamps) Distribution: see map in TTWG 2025.
References	Artner, H. G. 2006. Haltung und nachzucht von branderhorst's elseyaschildkröte elseya branderhorsti (ouwens, 1914) nebst ergebnissen einer freilandstudie im verbreitungsgebiet der art. Emys 13 (3): 4–16 Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Bonin, F., Devaux, B. & Dupré, A. 2006. Turtles of the World. English translation by P.C.H. Pritchard. Johns Hopkins University Press, 416 pp. Bour, R. 2008. Global diversity of turtles (Chelonii; Reptilia) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595:593–598 - get paper here de Rooij, N. de 1915. The Reptiles of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. I. Lacertilia, Chelonia, Emydosauria. Leiden (E. J. Brill), xiv + 384 pp. - get paper here Fritz, U. & Havas, P. 2007. CHECKLIST OF CHELONIANS OF THE WORLD. Vertebrate Zoology 57(2): 149-368 - get paper here Georges, Arthur, Carla Eisemberg, Yolarnie Amepou and Eric Manasi. 2014. Turtle conservation challenges in papua New Guinea. Turtle Survival 2014: 22-24 - get paper here Iskandar, Djoko T. and Mumpuni 2002. The herpetological type specimens in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense Collection. Hamadryad 27 (1):123-135 - get paper here Joseph-Ouni, Mehdi, William P. McCord & Cann, John 2022. A NEW SPECIES OF ELSEYA (TESTUDINES: CHELIDAE) FROM THE RIVERS OF THE KIMBERLEY,WESTERN AUSTRALIA. The Batagur Monographs 5: 35-54 Ouwens, P.A. 1914. List of Dutch East Indian Chelonians in the Buitenzong Zoological Museum. Contributions a la Faune des Indes Neelandaises. 1:29-32 - get paper here Thomson, S.; Amepou, Y., Anamiato, J. & Georges, A. 2015. A new species and subgenus of Elseya (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) from New Guinea. Zootaxa 4006 (1): 059–082 - get paper here Thomson,S., White,A. & Georges,A. 1997. Re-evaluation of Emydura lavarackorum: identification of a living fossil. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 42 (1): 327-336 - get paper here TTWG [TURTLE TAXONOMY WORKING GROUP: RHODIN, A.G.J., IVERSON, J.B., FRITZ, U., GALLEGO-GARCÍA, N., GEORGES, A., SHAFFER, H.B., AND VAN DuK, P.P.]. 2025. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (10th Ed.). In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., van Dijk, P.P., Stanford, C.B., Goode, E.V., Buhlmann, K.A., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 10:1-575 - get paper here TTWG; Anders G.J. Rhodin, John B. iverson, Roger Bour, Uwe Fritz, Arthur GeoRges, H. BRadley Shaffer, and Peter Paul van Dijk 2017. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (8th Ed.). In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Pritchard, P.C.H., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 7:1–292. doi: 10.3854/crm.7.checklist.atlas.v8.2017 - get paper here TTWG; Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., Bour, R., Fritz, U., Georges, A., Shaffer, H.B., and van Dijk, P.P. 2021. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (9th Ed.). In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., van Dijk, P.P., Stanford, C.B., Goode, E.V., Buhlmann, K.A., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 8:1–472. doi:10.3854/crm.8.checklist.atlas.v9.2021. - get paper here Wermuth, H., and R. Mertens. 1977. Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien. Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia. Das Tierreich. Berlin. 100: i-xxvii, 1-174 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information http://home.earthlink.net/~rednine/gallery1.htm Google images

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