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Chelodina oblonga GRAY, 1841

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Higher TaxaChelidae, Chelodininae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Oblong turtle, Narrow-breasted Snake-necked Turtle 
SynonymChelodina oblonga GRAY 1841: 434 (nomen dubium)
Chelodina colliei GRAY 1856: 267
Macrochelodina oblonga — WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985
Chelodina oblonga — KING & BURKE 1989
Macrodiremys oblonga — MCCORD & JOSEPH-OUNI 2007
Chelodina (Macrodiremys) colliei — GEORGES & THOMSON 2010
Chelodina (Macrodiremys) colliei — TTWG 2014
Chelodina colliei — COGGER 2014: 243
Chelodina (Macrodiremys) colliei — TTWG 2017: 193
Chelodina colliei — KEHLMAIER et al. 2019
Chelodina (Macrochelodina) oblonga — SHEA et al. 2020
Chelodina oblonga — TTWG 2021 
DistributionAustralia (SW Western Australia)

Type locality: Swan River, Australia.  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesLectotype: BMNH 1947.3.5.89, designated by Shea et al. 2020. Paralectotype: OUMNH 02584. The Lectotype designation by Thomson, 2000 (BMNH 1947.3.5.91, formerly 52.11.12.2), is invalid. The latter is from Swan River, WA, presented HMG (original description gives the collector as Dr. A. Collie). 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (subgenus Macrochelodina): Carapace broadly oblong, flattened dorsally and furrowed along midline; deep reticulated ornamentation of shell often present. Carapace elongated anteriorly and shortened posteriorly giving a narrow cara- pace with negligible posterior flaring; generalised reduction of carapace margins anteriorly and posteriorly; 5–8 (Smales 2019) exposed coffin-shaped neurals present. Anterior bridge strut small, sharply angled posteriorly with minimal suture surface with pleural 1; posterior bridge strut small, does not contact pleurals. Plastron long, narrow, more than twice as long as width measured immediately anterior to bridge, covering only about half of anterior orifice of shell in ventral view. Ilium in contact with posterior half of 8th pleural and pygal. Head and neck length, when fully extended, longer than carapace length; dorsum of neck finely reticulated, lacking obvious tubercles. Atlas (C1) moderately elongated; cervical vertebrae 2–4 greatly elongated (centrum about three times as long as wide). Transverse processes of cervical vertebrae thin and bladelike. Hyolaryngeal assemblage highly modified; elongation of corpus hyoideum along sulcus tracheae; anterior cornubranchiale expanded but not flattened through- out length, elongated, but not extending beyond posterior cornubranchiale; epibranchials cartilaginous throughout life (Shea et al. 2020: 429). 
CommentSynonymy: the name Chelodina oblonga GRAY 1841: 434 has been considered a nomen dubium by some authors (e.g. Kehlmair et al. 2019) but revalidated by Shea et al. 2020 (who also synonymized Chelodina colliei with Chelodina oblonga).

Type species: Chelodina oblonga is the type species of the subgenus Macrochelodina Wells & Wellington 1985: 9.

Habitat: freshwater (rivers, swamps) 
EtymologyPresumably named after the Latin oblonga (oblong-shaped), in reference to the shell shape. (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.
  • 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
  • de Rooij, N. de 1915. The Reptiles of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. I. Lacertilia, Chelonia, Emydosauria. Leiden (E. J. Brill), xiv + 384 pp. - 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
  • Gray,J.E. 1856. On some new species freshwater tortoises from North America, Ceylon and Australia. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) 18: 263-268 - get paper here
  • Kehlmaier, C., Zhang, X., Georges, A., Campbell, P. D., Thomson, S., & Fritz, U. 2019. Mitogenomics of historical type specimens of Australasian turtles: clarification of taxonomic confusion and old mitochondrial introgression. Scientific Reports, 9(1): 5841 - get paper here
  • Kuchling, G. 1989. Assessment of Ovarian Follicles and Oviductal Eggs by Ultra-Sound Scanning in Live Freshwater Turtles, Chelodina oblonga Herpetologica 45 (1): 89-94. - get paper here
  • Kuchling, Gerald 2013. A turtle trying to keep its head above water in the Land Down Under. The Tortoise 1 (2): 98-107.
  • 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
  • SMALES, IAN. 2021. Morphology of the lectotype of Chelodina oblonga Gray 1841 (Testudines: Chelidae). Zootaxa 5068 (4): 547–571. - 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; 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. (Ed 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.). Chelonian Research Monographs 8:1–472. doi:10.3854/crm.8.checklist.atlas.v9.2021. - get paper here
 
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