Actinemys pallida (SEELIGER, 1945)

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Higher Taxa	Emydidae, Emydinae, Testudinoidea, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Southwestern Pond Turtle, Southern Pacific Pond Turtle
Synonym	Clemmys marmorata pallida SEELIGER 1945 Clemmys marmorata pallida — STEBBINS 1985: 99 Clemmys marmorata pallida — LINER 1994 Clemmys marmorata pallida — CROTHER 2000 Actinemys marmorata pallida — MCCORD & JOSEPH-OUNI 2006 Emys pallida — SPINKS et al. 2014 Emys pallida — SPINKS et al. 2016 Emys pallida — TTWG 2017 Actinemys pallida — CROTHER et al. 2017 Actinemys pallida — SEIDEL & ERNST 2017 Actinemys pallida — TTWG 2021 Actinemys pallida — HANSEN & SHEDD 2025 Actinemys pallida — TTWG 2025
Distribution	USA (S California), Mexico (N Baja California); central coast range south of the San Francisco Bay area to the species’ southern range boundary, including the Mojave River (Spinks et al. 2014). Type locality: “Lower Coyote Creek, near Alamitos, Orange County, California”
Reproduction	oviparous.
Types	Holotype: MVZ 6716, adult female
Diagnosis	Diagnosis (pallida): Inguinal plates absent (60 percent) or small (34 percent). The sides and ventral surface of the neck usually have a light uniform background color with dark spots. (Seeliger 1945) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 115 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	Relationships: See E. marmorata. Spinks et al. (2014) used more DNA data to distinguish between a northern and southern clade which they recommended to call E. marmorata and E. pallida. Distribution: See Spinks et al. (2014: Fig. 2) for a map of E. marmorata and E. pallida, based on genetic data. Hybridization: Emys marmorata and Emys pallida show very limited intergradation in a few populations in the northern central coast range and adjacent Sierra Nevada foothills, although at all intergrade sites we also found pure individuals of the locally prevalent species Habitat: freshwater (swamps, ponds, rivers)
Etymology	Named after Latin “pallida” = pale or yellow(ish).
References	ALVAREZ, JEFF A.; ART RICHARDSON & BECKY ROZUMOWICZ-KODSUNTIE. 2021. ACTINEMYS PALLIDA (Southwestern Pond Turtle). NEST DESTRUCTION. Herpetological Review 52 (2): 384. - get paper here Behangana, Mathias; Richard Magala, Raymond Katumba, David Ochanda, Stephen Kigoolo, Samuel Mutebi, Daniele Dendi,, Luca Luiselli, and Daniel F. Hughes 2020. Herpetofaunal diversity and community structure in the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta Ramsar site, Uganda: Herpetofaunal diversity. European Journal of Ecology, 6(2) Burroughs, R. W., Parham, J. F., Stuart, B. L., Smits, P. D., & Angielczyk, K. D. 2024. Morphological Species Delimitation in the Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys): Can Machine Learning Methods Aid in Cryptic Species Identification? Integrative Organismal Biology, obae010 Crother, B. I. (ed.). 2017. Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. 8th edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43: 1-104 - get paper here FOSTER, SARAH M.; STEPHEN GERGENI, KELLY A. DAVIDSON, LUCY STEVENOT & JEFF A. ALVAREZ 2021. Successful nest intervention for declining turtle species - the northwestern pond turtle Actinemys marmorata and southwestern pond turtle Actinemys pallida. The Herpetological Bulletin (157) - get paper here Gregory, Kaili M.; Cat Darst, Samantha M. Lantz, Katherine Powelson, Don Ashton, Robert Fisher, Brian J. Halstead, Brian Hubbs, Jeffrey E. Lovich & Conor P. McGowan 2024. Population Viability Analysis for Two Species of Imperiled Freshwater Turtles Chelonian Conservation and Biology Jun 2024 Vol. 23, No. 1: 1-12 - get paper here Hansen, Robert and Jackson D. Shedd 2025. California Amphibians and Reptiles. Princeton University Press, 528 pp., ISBN<br />9780691249087 (ebook) - get paper here Liner, E.A. 1994. Scientific and common names for the Amphibians and Reptiles of Mexico in English and Spanish. Herpetological Circular 23: 1-113 McCord, W.P. & Joseph-Ouni, M. 2006. Chelonian Illustrations # 24 - North American Wood and Pond Turtles. Reptilia (GB) (44): 83-86 - get paper here Peralta-García A, Valdez-Villavicencio JH, Fucsko LA, Hollingsworth BD, Johnson JD, Mata-Silva V, Rocha A, DeSantis DL, Porras LW, and Wilson LD. 2023. The herpetofauna of the Baja California Peninsula and its adjacent islands, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation status. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 17(1&2): 57–142 Seeliger, L.M. 1945. Variation in the Pacific Mud Turtle, Clemmys marmorata. Copeia 1945 (3): 150-159 - get paper here Seidel, Michael E. & Carl H. Ernst 2017. A Systematic Review of the Turtle Family Emydidae. Vertebrate Zoology 67 (1): 1–122 - get paper here Spinks, P.Q., Thomson, R.C., McCartney-Melstad, E., Bradley Shaffer, H. 2016. Phylogeny and temporal diversification of the New World pond turtles (Emydidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 103: 85-97 - get paper here Spinks, Phillip Q.; Robert C. Thomson, and H. Bradley Shaffer 2014. The advantages of going large: genome-wide SNPs clarify the complex population history and systematics of the threatened western pond turtle. Molecular Ecology. 23(9): 2228-2241. - get paper here Stebbins,R.C. 1985. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, Boston 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; Anders G.J. Rhodin, John B. iverson, Roger Bour, Uwe Fritz, Arthur GeoRges, H. BRadley Shaffer, and Peter Paul van Dijk 2017. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (8th Ed.). In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Pritchard, P.C.H., 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 7:1–292. doi: 10.3854/crm.7.checklist.atlas.v8.2017 - 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 TU, BILLY & LYNNE TRULIO. 2022. Livestock Ponds as Long-Term Habitat for Southwestern Pond Turtles (Actinemys pallida) in Rangeland Landscapes. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 21(2): 277–282. - get paper here Valdez-Villavicencio, Jorge H.; Anny Peralta-García, Patricia Galina-Tessaro and Bradford D. Hollingsworth 2016. Notes on the Reproduction of the Southwestern Pond Turtle Emys pallida in Baja California, México. Revista Mexicana de Herpetología 2(1):
External links	National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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