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Mesoclemmys perplexa BOUR & ZAHER, 2005

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Higher TaxaChelidae, Chelinae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Brasilianische Krötenkopfschildkröte
Portuguese: Cágado, Cágado-Goiano 
SynonymMesoclemmys perplexa BOUR & ZAHER 2005
Mesoclemmys perplexa — VAN DIJK et al. 2011
Phrynops (Mesoclemmys) hogei — PHILIPPEN 2012
Mesoclemmys perplexa — TTWG 2021
Mesoclemmys perplexa — TTWG 2025 
DistributionBrazil (Piauí, Ceará)

Type locality: Forested and humid areas of the regions called “Olho d’Água da Santa”and “Baixão do Fausto”, southern part of the Parque Nacional da Serra das Confusões, State of Piauí, Brasil.  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesHolotype: MZUSP 4111 (Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo), 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: - abbreviations are listed in Appendix 2): A chelid turtle with a shell low: Carapace depth/length = ca. 0.25 (juvenile) – 0.28 (adult) and narrow: Carapace width/length = ca. 0.7 (juvenile) – 0.6 (adult), laterally constricted in adult. Dorsal scutes noticeably sculpted by both concentric and radiating ridges. Head moderately enlarged (Carapace width/head width: ca. 3) but with a narrow parietal crest. Temporal and frontal scutes not bulging, with the frontals making a more or less obvious cruciform figure; snout short and pointed, not upturned. Maximum known length: 193.7 mm (female). 
CommentFor a color illustration and distribution map see BOUR & ZAHER 2005.

Habitat: freshwater (rivers, swamps) 
EtymologyNamed after the Latin word “perplexa” which means confused, intricate, obscure, or ambiguous, and refers to the place where the taxon was observed, Serra das Confusões; it also alludes to its ambiguous generic attribution, and that of its allies. 
References
  • Bour, R. 2008. Global diversity of turtles (Chelonii; Reptilia) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595:593–598 - get paper here
  • Bour, R. & Zaher, H. 2005. A NEW SPECIES OF MESOCLEMMYS, FROM THE OPEN FORMATIONS OF NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL (CHELONII, CHELIDAE). Pap. Avul. Zool., Sao Paulo 45 (24): 295-311 - get paper here
  • Brito, E. S.; Valadão, R. M.; Malvasio, A.; Freitas, A. F. F.; Muniz, F. L.; Molina, F. B.; Souza, F. L.; Moura, G. J. B.; Costa, H. C.; Bassetti, L. A. B.; Friol, N. R.; Rocha, S. B.;Gomides, S. C.;Marques, T. S.;Portelinha, T. C. G. 2025. Quelônios Continentais e Crocodilianos do Brasil, 1. Ed. Agência Estadual de Meio Ambiente do Estado de Pernambuco, Recife, 350pp
  • Campos, Felipe Siqueira and Alexandre Ramos Bastos Lage. 2013. Checklist of amphibians and reptiles from the Nova Roma Ecological Station, in the Cerrado of the State of Goiás, central Brazil. Herpetology Notes 6: 431-438. - get paper here
  • Campos, Felipe Siqueira; Ricardo Lourenço de Moraes and Caio Stuart Amorim Pereira. 2011. New state record of Mesoclemmys perplexa Bour and Zaher, 2005 (Reptilia: Chelidae) in Brazil. Herpetology Notes 4: 263-264. - get paper here
  • Ettmar, Stephan 2019. Toad-headed turtles of the genus Mesoclemmys - Distribution, Natural History, Husbandry. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 204 pp.
  • Gonzalez R. C. et al. 2020. Lista dos Nomes Populares dos Répteis no Brasil – Primeira Versão. Herpetologia Brasileira 9 (2): 121 – 214 - get paper here
  • Loebmann, D. 2008. Geographic distribution. Mesoclemmys perplexa. Brazil: Ceará. Herpetological Review 39 (2): 236 - get paper here
  • Madella-Auricchio, Cláudia Renata; Paulo Auricchio Enio Saraiva Soares 2017. Reptile species composition in the Middle Gurguéia and comparison with inventories in the eastern Parnaíba River Basin, State of Piauí, Brazil. Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 57(28): 375-386, - 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; Dijk, Peter Paul van; John B. Iverson, H. Bradley Shaffer; Roger Bour & Anders G.J. Rhodin [turtle taxonomy working group] 2011. Turtles of the World, 2011 Update: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status. Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5: 78 pp.; doi:10.3854/crm.5.000.checklist.v4.2011 - 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
  • Vechio, Francisco Dal; Mauro Teixeira Jr., Renato Sousa Recoder, Miguel Trefault Rodrigues & Hussam Zaher 2016. The herpetofauna of Parque Nacional da Serra das Confusões, state of Piauí, Brazil, with a regional species list from an ecotonal area of Cerrado and Caatinga. Biota Neotropica 16(3): e20150105 - get paper here
 
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