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Elseya novaeguineae (MEYER, 1874)

IUCN Red List - Elseya novaeguineae - Least Concern, LR
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Higher TaxaChelidae, Chelodininae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Western New Guinea Stream Turtle 
SynonymPlatemys novae-guineae MEYER 1874
Emydura novae-guineae — BOULENGER 1888
Emydura novae-guineae — DE ROOIJ 1915: 321
Emydura novae-guineae — HEDIGER 1934
Elseya novaeguineae — GOODE 1967
Elseya latisternum novaeguineae — BLACKMORE 1969
Emydura novaeguineae — WERMUTH & MERTENS 1977
Elseya dentata novaeguineae — OBST 1985
Elseya novaeguineae — ERNST & BARBOUR 1989: 42
Elseya novaeguineae — BONIN et al 2006
Myuchelys novaeguineae — GEORGES & THOMSON 2010
Elseya novaeguineae — RHODIN et al. 2012
Elseya (Hanwarachelys) novaeguineae — THOMSON et al. 2015
Elseya (Hanwarachelys) novaeguineae — TTWG 2017: 194
Elseya caelatus JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD 2019: 25
Elseya caelatus ayamaru JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD 2019
Elseya novaeguineae — TTWG 2021
Elseya novaeguineae — TTWG 2025 
DistributionIndonesia, Papua New Guinea (West Papua, Waigeo Island, Aru Islands)

Type locality: Passim, NW New Guinea (1 ̊41'S,134 ̊05'E)

caelatus (invalid): Indonesia (West Papua); Type locality: Salawati Island, West Papua Province, (New Guinean) Indonesia.

ayamaru: Indonesia (West Papua); Ayamaru lakes, West Papua Province, (New Guinean) Indonesia.  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesHolotype: MTD (= MTKD) D8222, according to Obst 1976
Hololype: AMNH R-178715, adult female (Plate I) with a straight carapace length 195.66 mm, collected by F. Yuwono, November, 1994. Paratype: AMNH #R-178716, adult male (Plate 2) with a straight carapace length 186.25 mm, collected by F. Yuwono, November, 1994 from Waigeo Island, West Papua Province, (New Guinean) Indonesia. [caelatus]
Hololype: AMNH R-178717, adult male, with a straight carapace length 138.04 mm, collected by F. Yuwono, November, 1994 from the Ayamaru lakes, West Papua Province, (New Guinean) Indonesia. Paratype: AMNH R-178718, juvenile female (Plate 7) with a straight carapace length 113.42 mm, collected by F. Yuwono. November 1994 [ayamaru]
 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A large member of the genus Eiseya in New Guinea that is characterized by the following features: A relatively low, evenly rising. oval, dark brown carapace with a fine striated texture; no vertebral keel present in adults; the anterior and posterior (all) marginals are even (level) to one another, respectively, with minor to no serration in young and adult spec imen s; a small circular black blotch present on the posterior-center of each vertebraJ and costal scute; the pectoral-abdominal seam meets the marginals generally at M6 or more specifically at the beginning of M6; longitudinal extensions of the posterior horny head shield (casque) broad and fully contacting the postero-dorsal rim of the tympanum; a dark gray sclera, slightly infused with light greenish-gray, and dull pale green iris with waShing of dark green fleckings throughout (Plates 4, 5 and 6 in Joseph-Ouni & McCord 2019).


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CommentSynonymy: McDowell 1983 considered this a synonym of Elseya dentata. GOODE (1967) synonymized E. schultzei with Emydura (= Elseya) novaeguineae and Emydura subglobosa and Emydura albertisii with Emydura krefftii.

Hybridization: FRITZ & BAUR (1995) report vital hybrids between Emydura subglobosa and Elseya novaeguineae and between Emydura subglobosa and Chelodina longicollis.

Phylogenetics: Molecular work of Georges et al. 2014 demonstrated deep phylogeny between 3 populations of Elseya novaeguineae complex, leading to the resurrection of E. schultzei and description of Elseya rhodini and this groups placement in a new subgenus Hawarachelys by Thomson et al, 2015.

Type species: Platemys novae-guineae MEYER 1874 is the type species of the subgenus Hanwarachelys Thomson, Amepou, Anamiato, and Georges 2015.

Distribution: see map in THOMSON et al. 2015: Fig. 1. For E. caelatus see map in JOSEPH-OUNI & MCCORD 2019: 31 (Fig. 1)

Habitat: freshwater (rivers, swamps)

RDB speciesID: 22782 [caelatus]

Etymology (caelatus): Named after the Latin, meaning "carved" in reference to the strongly sculpted carapacial texture in both young and adult specimens.

Etymology (ayamaru): named after the type locality. 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality. 
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
  • 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
  • Ernst,C.H. and Barbour,R.W. 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. - London
  • Fritz, U. & Baur, M. 1995. Schildkröten-Hybriden. 1. Halswender-Schildkröten (Pleurodira). Herpetofauna 17 (94): 28-34 - get paper here
  • Fritz, U. & Havas, P. 2007. CHECKLIST OF CHELONIANS OF THE WORLD. Vertebrate Zoology 57(2): 149-368 - get paper here
  • Georges, A. 1996. Electrophoretic delineation of species boundaries within the short-necked freshwater turtles of Australia (Testudines: Chelidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (1996), 118: 241–260. - 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.; Alacs, E.; Pauza, M.; Kinginapi, F.; Ona, A. & Eisemberg, C. 2008. Freshwater turtles of the Kikori Drainage, Papua New Guinea, with special reference to the pig-nosed turtle, Carettochelys insculpta. Wildlife Research 35: 700–711 - get paper here
  • Georges, Arthur; Xiuwen Zhang, Peter Unmack, Brenden N. Reid, Minh Le and William P. McCord 2014. Contemporary genetic structure of an endemic freshwater turtle reflects Miocene orogenesis of New Guinea. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 111 (1): 192-208, DOI: 10.1111/bij.12176 - get paper here
  • Goode, J. 1967. Freshwater tortoises of Australia and New Guinea. Lansdowne Press, Melbourne 154 pp.
  • Hediger, H. 1934. Beitrag zur Herpetologie und Zoogeographie Neu-Britanniens und einiger umliegender Gebiete. Zool. Jahrb. (Syst.) 65: 441-582
  • Hennig, Andreas S. 2011. Kein „Land unter“ in Aquaterrarien – Landteile für Wasser schildkröten. Draco 12 (46): 22-28 - get paper here
  • Joseph-Ouni, M. & McCord, W. P. 2019. A NEW SPECIES OF ELSEYA (TESTUDINES: CHELIDAE) FROM WEST PAPUA PROVINCE, INDONESIA. The Batagur Monographs 1: 21-42 (The science journal of the Turtle and Tortoise Preservation Group) - 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
  • McDowell, S.B. 1983. The genus Emydura (Testudines: Chelidae) in New Guinea with notes on the penial morphology of Pleurodira. In: RHODIN & MIYATA (eds.): Advances in Herpetology and Evolutionary Biology. Museum of Comparative Zoology, pp. 169-189 - get paper here
  • Meyer, A.B. 1874. Eine Mittheilung von Hern. Dr. Adolf Berhard Meyer über die von ihm auf Neu-Guinea und den Inseln Jobi, Mysore und Mafoor im Jahre 1873 gesammelten Amphibien. Monatsber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1874: 128-140 [also published as a separate print with pages 1-17 with a different title in which “Hern. Dr. Adolf Berhard Meyer über die von ihm” is replaced by “mir”] - get paper here
  • Obst, F.J. 1976. Über den Holotypus von Platemys novaeguineae Meyer, 1874 (Reptilia, Chelonia). Zoologische Abhandlungen, Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde, Dresden, 34:43-46
  • Ouwens, P.A. 1914. List of Dutch East Indian Chelonians in the Buitenzong Zoological Museum. Contributions a la Faune des Indes Neelandaises. 1:29-32 - get paper here
  • Thieme, U. 1984. Eine unbekannte Elseya ? Sauria 6 (3): 13-15 - get paper here
  • Thomson, S.; Amepou, Y., Anamiato, J. & Georges, A. 2015. A new species and subgenus of Elseya (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) from New Guinea. Zootaxa 4006 (1): 059–082 - get paper here
  • Thomson,S., White,A. & Georges,A. 1997. Re-evaluation of Emydura lavarackorum: identification of a living fossil. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 42 (1): 327-336 - get paper here
  • 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
  • Vogt,T. 1911. Reptilien und Amphibien aus Neu-Guinea. Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde 1911 (9): 410-420
  • Wermuth, H., and R. Mertens. 1977. Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien. Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia. Das Tierreich. Berlin. 100: i-xxvii, 1-174 - get paper here
  • 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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