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Cuora zhoui ZHAO, ZHOU & YE, 1990

IUCN Red List - Cuora zhoui - Critically Endangered, CR
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Higher TaxaGeoemydidae (Geoemydinae), Testudinoidea, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Zhou's Box Turtle
G: Zhous Scharnierschildkröte
Chinese: 周氏闭壳龟 
SynonymCuora zhoui ZHAO in ZHAO, ZHOU & YE 1990: 213
Cuora pallidicephala MCCORD & IVERSON 1991
Cuora zhoui — XIANGKUI 1994
Cuora zhoui — ZHOU 2006
Cuora zhoui — TTWG 2014
Cuora zhoui — TTWG 2021 
DistributionChina (Guanxi)

Type locality: “vicinity of Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China”.

pallidicephala: China (NC Yunnan); Type locality: reported to have been collected at Wuting = Wuding or Yuanmow, Yunnan Province, China  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesHolotype: private collection, NTM 9001 (Nanjing Turtle Museum, as “Turtle Museum”); Paratypes: 9002 & 9003
Holotype: UF 77230 [pallidicephala] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: This new form has a shallow anal notch on plastron and a complete internal seam, as the members of genus Cuora, but differs from all the known six species in following characteristics: 1) with lateral keels, without or with a part of vertebral keel on carapace; 2) vertebral 1 extending laterally farther beyond or close to the seam separating marginals 1-2; 3) the length of intergular seam 4-6 times longer than that between the two humerals; 4) a black plastron with a large medial yellow pattern and some small marginal yellow patches, without black or dark-brown stripe on both sides of head and neck. (Zhao et al. 1990) 
CommentKnown only from the pet trade and markets (PARHAM et al. 2001). Picture in Draco 13 (4): 91 (2003). C. pallidicephala is synonymous with C. zhoui according to PARHAM et al. (2001). Not mentioned in a recent list by OBST (2003).

Distribution: possibly in Yunnan (China) but records from there are questionable (Wang et al. 2022).

Abundance: Rare. This is one of the species called 'lost' and 'rediscovered' by Lindken et al. 2024. 
EtymologyNamed after Jiufa Zhou, a herpetologist who started the first Chinese Turtle Museum, Nanjing. 
References
  • Anonymous 2016. Testudinate China [in both English and Chinese] Testudinate Industry Branch of the China Fishery Association, published on occasion of WCH8; author not explicitly stated, 54 pp.
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Blanck, T., Protiva, T., Zhou, T., Li, Y., Crow, P., and Tiedemann, R. 2017. New subspecies of Cuora cyclornata (Blanck, McCord & Le, 2006), Cuora trifasciata (Bell, 1825) and Cuora aurocapitata (Luo & Zong, 1988). Sichuan Journal of Zoology 36 (4):368–385
  • Blanck, Torsten 2013. The turtle from nowhere: An Asian box turtle on the brink of extinction. The Tortoise 1 (2): 64-69
  • Fritz U; Obst F J 1998. Neue Schildkröten aus Südostasien Teil I. Platysternidae und Bataguridae (Cuora). Sauria 20 (4): 9–22 - get paper here
  • He, Jing; Zhou, Ting; Rao, Ding Qi; Zhang, Ya Ping 2007. Molecular identification and phylogenetic position of Cuora yunnanensis. Chinese Science Bulletin 52 (23): 3305-3309 - get paper here
  • Lindken T.; Anderson, C. V., Ariano-Sánchez, D., Barki, G., Biggs, C., Bowles, P., Chaitanya, R., Cronin, D. T., Jähnig, S. C., Jeschke, J. M., Kennerley, R. J., Lacher, T. E. Jr., Luedtke, J. A., Liu, C., Long, B., Mallon, D., Martin, G. M., Meiri, 2024. What factors influence the rediscovery of lost tetrapod species? Global Change Biology, 30: 1-18 - get paper here
  • McCord,W.P. & Iverson,J.B. 1991. A new box turtle of the genus Cuora (Testudines: Emydidae) with taxonomic notes and a key to the species. Herpetologica 47 (4): 407-420 - get paper here
  • Meier, E. 1999. Das Schildkröten-Erhaltungszuchtprojektder ZGAP. Elaphe 7 (4): 78-80
  • Meier, E. & Ch. Langner 2018. Zhous Scharnierschildkröte im Internationalen Zentrum für Schildkrötenschutz (IZS) im Allwetterzoo Münster – eine Erfolgsgeschichte. Reptilia 23 (133): 32-37 - get paper here
  • Parham, James Ford ; W. Brian Simison; Kenneth H. Kozak; Chris R. Feldman and Haitao Shi 2001. New Chinese turtles: endangered or invalid? A reassessment of two species using mitochondrial DNA, allozyme electrophoresis and known-locality specimens. Animal Conservation 4: 357–367 [erratum in Animal Conservation 5:86] - get paper here
  • Schilde, M. 2004. Asiatische Sumpfschildkröten - Die Familie Geoemydidae in Südostasien, China und Japan. Natur und Tier Verlag (Münster), 192 pp. - get paper here
  • Spinks, Phillip Q.; Robert C. Thomson, YaPing Zhang, Jing Che, Yonghua Wu, H. Bradley Shaffer 2012. Species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships in the critically endangered Asian box turtle genus Cuora. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 63 (3): 656-667 - get paper here
  • Spinks, Phillip Q.; Shaffer, H. Bradley 2007. Conservation phylogenetics of the Asian box turtles (Geoemydidae, Cuora): mitochondrial introgression, numts, and inferences from multiple nuclear loci. Conservation Genetics 8(3):641-657 - get paper here
  • Thomson, Robert C.; Andrew M. Shedlock, Scott V. Edwards and H. Bradley Shaffer 2008. Developing markers for multilocus phylogenetics in non-model organisms: A test case with turtles. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49 (2): 514-525 - get paper here
  • Tiedemann, R., A. R. R. Schneider, K. Havenstein, T. Blanck, E. Meier, M. Raffel et al. 2014. New microsatellite markers allow high-resolution taxon delimitation in critically endangered Asian box turtles, genus Cuora. Salamandra 50 (3): 139-146 - get paper here
  • TTWG [Peter Paul van Dijk, John B. Iverson, Anders G.J. Rhodin, H. Bradley Shaffer, and Roger Bour] 2014. Turtles of the World, 7th Edition: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution with Maps, and Conservation Status. 000.v7. Chelonian Research Monographs (ISSN 1088-7105) No. 5, doi:10.3854/crm.5.000.checklist.v7.2014 - 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.). Chelonian Research Monographs 8:1–472. doi:10.3854/crm.8.checklist.atlas.v9.2021. - get paper here
  • Wagner, P. 2018. Die Gattung Cuora – eine akut bedrohte, einzigartige Kreation der Evolution. Reptilia 23 (133): 16-21 - get paper here
  • Wang K, Lyu ZT, Wang J, Qi S, Che J 2022. Updated Checklist and Zoogeographic Division of the Reptilian Fauna of Yunnan Province, China. Biodiversity Science 30 (4): 21326, 1–31 - get paper here
  • Wang, Kai; Jinlong Ren, Hongman Chen, Zhitong Lyu, Xianguang Guo Ke Jiang, Jinmin Chen, Jiatang Li, Peng Guo, Yingyong Wang, Jing Che 2020. The updated checklists of amphibians and reptiles of China. Biodiversity Science 28 (2): 189-218 - get paper here
  • Xiangkui-Y 1994. Fossil and recent turtles of China. Science Press, Beijing. 1994: i-vi, 1-112
  • Zhao,E. Zhou,T. & Ye,P. 1990. A new Chinese box turtle (Testudinata: Emydidae) - Cuora zhoui. In: E. Zhao (ed) From water onto Land. [in Chinese with English summary and diagnosis] Chinese Soc. Study Amphib. Rept. Beijing: 213-216 - get paper here
  • Zhou, Ting. 2006. Observation on Cuora zhoui in captivity. Sichuan Journal of Zoology 25 (2):390-392. [In Chinese] - get paper here
 
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