Elseya schultzei (VOGT, 1911)
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Elseya schultzei
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| Higher Taxa | Chelidae, Chelodininae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Northern New Guinea Stream Turtle, Schultze’s Snapping Turtle |
| Synonym | Emydura schultzei VOGT 1911 Emydura schultzei — DE ROOIJ 1915: 321 Emydura schultzei — WERMUTH & MERTENS 1977 Elseya schultzei — GEORGES & THOMSON 2003 Emydura schultzei — FRITZ & HAVAS 2007 Elseya schultzei — TTWG 2014: 432 Elseya (Hanwarachelys) schultzei — THOMSON et al. 2015 Elseya (Hanwarachelys) schultzei — TTWG 2017: 195 Elseya orestiad JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD 2019 Elseya schultzei — TTWG 2021 |
| Distribution | N Papua New Guinea Type locality: river west of mouth of Tami River, new Guinea, (2 ̊37'S,140 ̊54'E). orestiad: Indonesia (Papua); Type locality: Cyclops Mountains, Papua Province, (New Guinean) Indonesia |
| Reproduction | oviparous. |
| Types | Holotype: ZMB 22182 Holotype: AMNH R-178719, adult female (Plate I) with a straight carapace length 148.46 mm, collected by F. Yuwono, November, 1994. Paratypes. AMNH R-178720, adult male (Plate I) with a straight carapace length 124.01 mm; AMNH R-178721, adult male (Plate I) with a straight carapace length 107.81 mm. Same collection data as holotype [orestiad] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Eyes typically green in the sclera with a bright gold iris which is distinct. Head shield entire, extending down the parietal arches to broadly contact the tympanum. Head shield narrower than in Elseya novaeguineae but wider than in E. rhodini. No contact between the vomer and the pterygoids of the skull, distinguishing the species from E. rhodini [from THOMSON et al. 2015]. |
| Comment | Synonymy: GOODE (1967) synonymized E. schultzei with Emydura (= Elseya) novaeguineae and Emydura subglobosa and Emydura albertisii with Emydura krefftii. Listed as synonym of Elseya (as Myuchelys) novaeguineae by GEORGES & THOMSON 2010. TTWG 2021 considered E. orestiad as a synonym of E. schultzei. Distribution: Elseya schultzei occurs north of the PNG mountain range, Elseya novaeguineae in the western part of West Papua, and Elseya rhodini to the south of the central ranges of PNG and West Papua. See map in THOMSON et al. 2015: Fig. 1. Habitat: freshwater (rivers, swamps) |
| Etymology | Named after Dr. Leonhard Schultze-Jena (1872-1955), a German geographer, zoologist, botanist, philologist, and ethnographer. He was Professor of Geography at Philipps-Universität Marburg (1913-1937) who travelled to New Guinea and Central America. E. orestiad was named after the nymphs that inhabited and protected the mountains and valleys in Ancient Greek mythology (the Orestiades, plural), which emerged to hunt and fish, in reference to the predatory nature of snapping turtles, as well as to this species' indigenous landscape. |
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