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 E: Guadalcanal snapping turtle [auramemoria] E: Malaita snapping turtle [eidolon] E: Nabire snapping turtle [nabire] |
| 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 Elseya schultzei — TTWG 2025 Elseya auramemoria JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD & DWYER 2022 Elseya auramemoria — TTWG 2025 Elseya (Solomonemys) eidolon JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD & DWYER 2022 Elseya eidolon — TTWG 2025 Elseya nabire JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD 2022 Elseya nabire — TTWG 2025 |
| 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 auramemoria (invalid): Solomon Islands; Type locality: middle-lower reaches of the eastern bank of the Mbonehe River, northern Guadalcanal, Guadalcanal District, Solomon Islands. eidolon (invalid): Solomon Islands; Type locality: wetland southeast of Malu, northern Malaita Island, Malaita District, Solomon Islands. nabire (invalid): Indonesia (Papua Province); Type locality: the Wanggar River, Papua Province, Indonesia (New Guinea) |
| 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] Holotype: YPM HERR.022304, an adult male specimen (Plates 2, 4) with a straight carapace length of 167.69 mm, collected May, 1995, by a native Solomon Islander in conjunction with native herpetofauna collector G. Fafale. [auramemoria] Holotype: YPM HERR.022305, an adult female specimen (Plate 2, 3) with a straight carapace length of 212.82 mm, collected March, 1995 by native Solomon Islanders (Figure 1). [eidolon] Holotype: YPM HERR.022308, an adult female specimen, collected by Danny Gunalen, 2008. Plate 1a in Joseph-Ouni et al. 2022. Paratypes (3): YPM HERR.022309 (Plate 1b), an adult male specimen; YPM HERR.022310 (Plate 1b) an adult female and YPM HERR.022311, an adult male specimen, all collected by Danny Gunalen from the Wanggar River, Papua Province, Indonesia (New Guinea), 1994. [nabire] |
| 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]. Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about about 1.89 pages) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material. |
| 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. We follow TTWG 2025 in synonymizing auramemoria, eidolon, and nabire with 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) RDB speciesID: 24657 [auramemoria] RDB speciesID: 24660 [eidolon] RDB speciesID: 24647 [nabire] Etymology (auramemoria): The species name is a combination of the Ancient Greek αύρα (“air, atmosphere”) and the Ancient Latin memoria (“memory, remembrance”) named as a dual reference: one for the alleged native belief that freshwater turtles represent the spiritual incarnation of deceased ancestors, and secondly, in awareness of the thousands of human lives lost during World War Two in the cataclysmic Solomons campaign. Etymology (eidolon): Named after the Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “ghost, image”), named as a dual reference: one for the mysterious rumors of this turtle’s existence which defied cheloniological evidence for so long, and also in reference to the alleged native Malaitan belief that freshwater turtles represent the incarnation of deceased, spiritual wanderers. Etymology (nabire): Named after the region of its endemicity, Nabire, which is used as a noun in apposition. Type species: Elseya eidolon JOSEPH-OUNI et al. 2022 is the type species of the subgenus Solomonemys JOSEPH-OUNI et al. 2022. |
| 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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