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Chelodina expansa GRAY, 1857

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Higher TaxaChelidae, Chelodininae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Giant Snake-necked Turtle 
SynonymChelodina expansa GRAY 1857: 370
Chelodina expansa GRAY 1857: 485
Chelodina expansa — GOODE 1968
Macrochelodina expansa — WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985: 9
Chelodina expansa — ERNST & BARBOUR 1989: 37
Chelodina expansa — COGGER 2000: 189
Macrochelodina expansa — FRITZ & HAVAS 2007
Chelodina expansa — HAMANN et al. 2008
Chelodina (Macrochelodina) expansa — GEORGES & THOMSON 2010
Chelodina (Macrochelodina) expansa — TTWG 2014
Chelodina (Chelydera) expansa — SHEA et al. 2020
Chelodina expansa — TTWG 2021 
DistributionAustralia (Queensland: from Rockhampton southwest through the coastal and interior areas to W New South Wales and the Murray River drainage, and on Fraser Island off Queensland; South Australia, Victoria)

Type locality: Australia.  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1947.3.4.21, BMNH 1947.3.5.88 (latter formerly 56.12.3.11), N Australia, collected S. Stutchbury. While these are the data in the BMNH catalogues, the BMNH accession books list the two specimens of C. expansa as 56.12.3.6-7, and purchased from H. Cuming, while 56.12.3.11 is identified as Emydura macquarii. 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (1919 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentHabitat: freshwater (rivers, swamps)

Genetics: Chelodina expansa has no known mitochondria of it's own, having that of C. longicollis or C. canni I depending on locality and sympatry. These species
are in different subgenera as an aside. (Scott Thompson, on Taxacom, 28 May 2024) 
EtymologyPresumably named after the Latin expansa (spread out), in allusion to the shape of the shell. (G. Shea, pers. comm., 9 Feb 2024) 
References
  • Bonin, F., Devaux, B. & Dupré, A. 2006. Turtles of the World. English translation by P.C.H. Pritchard. Johns Hopkins University Press, 416 pp.
  • Booth, D.T. 1998. Egg Size, Clutch Size, and Reproductive Effort of the Australian Broad-shelled River Turtle, Chelodina expansa Journal of Herpetology 32 (4): 592-596. - get paper here
  • Booth, D.T. 2002. The Breaking of Diapause in Embryonic Broad-Shell River Turtles (Chelodina expansa) Journal of Herpetology 36 (2): 304-307. - get paper here
  • Bour, R. 2008. Global diversity of turtles (Chelonii; Reptilia) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595:593–598 - get paper here
  • Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Covacevich J.A., Couper, P.J., McDonald, K.R. 1998. Reptile diversity at risk in the Brigalow Belt, Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 42 (2): 475-486 - get paper here
  • Ernst,C.H. and Barbour,R.W. 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. - London
  • Fritz, U. 1993. Bemerkungen über das Werbeverhalten der Riesen-Schlangenhalsschildkröte (Chelodina expansa). Herpetofauna 15 (83): 06-09 - get paper here
  • Gaffney, Eugene S. 1977. The side-necked turtle family Chelidae: a theory of relationships using shared derived characters. American Museum Novitates (2620): 1-28 - get paper here
  • Georges, A. & Thomson, S. 2010. Diversity of Australasian freshwater turtles, with an annotated synonymy and keys to species. Zootaxa 2496: 1–37 - get paper here
  • Georges, A.; Adams, M.; McCord, W. 2002. Electrophoretic delineation of species boundaries within the genus Chelodina (Testudines: Chelidae) of Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 134 (4): 401-422 - get paper here
  • Goode, J. 1968. Morphological variations in Victorian tortoises with special reference to the intermediate form of Chelodina expansa. Victorian Naturalist 85: 263-267 - get paper here
  • Gray, J.E. 1857. Description of a new species of Chelodina from Australia. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1856: 369-371 - get paper here
  • Gray,J.E. 1857. Description of a new species of Chelodina from Australia. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) 19: 485-486 - get paper here
  • HAMANN, M., SCHÄUBLE, C.S., EMERICK, S.P., LIMPUS, D.J. & LIMPUS, C.J. 2008. Freshwater turtle populations in the Burnett River. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 52 (2): 221-232 - get paper here
  • Hodges, Kate; Stephen Donnellan and Arthur Georges 2014. Phylogeography of the Australian freshwater turtle Chelodina expansa reveals complex relationships among inland and coastal bioregions. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society<br>111 (4): 789–805; DOI: 10.1111/bij.12221 - get paper here
  • Mazzoleni, Sofia; Barbora Augstenová, Lorenzo Clemente, Markus Auer, Uwe Fritz, Peter Praschag, Tomáš Protiva, Petr Velenský, Lukáš Kratochvíl & Michail Rovatsos 2020. Sex is determined by XX/XY sex chromosomes in Australasian side-necked turtles (Testudines: Chelidae). Sci Rep 10: 4276 - get paper here
  • Murphy, Michael J 2016. First record of the broad-shelled river turtle 'Chelodina expansa' gray, 1857 (Testudines: Chelidae) from the Castlereagh river in Northern Inland New South Wales, with notes on nesting. Victorian Naturalist 133 (4) - get paper here
  • SHEA, GLENN; SCOTT THOMSON & ARTHUR GEORGES 2020. The identity of Chelodina oblonga Gray 1841 (Testudines: Chelidae) reassessed. Zootaxa 4779 (3): 419–437 - get paper here
  • Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp.
  • 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
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
  • Winkler, J.D. 2006. Testing phylogenetic implications of eggshell characters in side-necked turtles (Testudines: Pleurodira). Zoology 109: 127-136 - get paper here
 
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