Gopherus morafkai MURPHY, BERRY, EDWARDS, LEVITON, LATHROP & RIEDLE, 2011
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Gopherus morafkai?
Gopherus morafkai
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| Higher Taxa | Testudinidae, Testudinoidea, Testudines (turtles) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Morafka’s Desert Tortoise |
| Synonym | Gopherus morafkai MURPHY, BERRY, EDWARDS, LEVITON, LATHROP & RIEDLE 2011 Xerobates agassizii COOPER 1861 (partim) Testudo agassizii — COPE 1875 Gopherus agassizii — STEJNEGER 1893 Scaptochelys agassizii — BRAMBLE 1982 Gopherus morafkai — TTWG 2014 Gopherus morafkai — TTWG 2021 |
| Distribution | USA (Arizona), Mexico (Sonora) Type locality: Tucson (approximate location 32° 7' N, 110° 56' W, elevation 948 m), Pima County, Arizona |
| Reproduction | oviparous. |
| Types | Holotype: CAS 33867 (California Academy of Sciences) ; juvenile collected on 9 July 1912 by H. Brown and preserved in ethanol. Paratypes. ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) 47501, formerly CAS 13165, an immature tortoise collected by H. Brown from 20 miles (32 km) west of Tucson, (presumably the Roskruge Mountains, Pima County) Arizona, USA (approximate location 32° 7' N, 111° 18' W, where tortoises occur today), on 9 March 1908, received at CAS alive on 23 March 1908, and died 8 July 1908; CAS 34263, a juvenile collected by J.R. Slevin in the Catalina Mountains (Santa Catalina Mountains), foothills at west end of mountains, Pima County, Arizona, USA on 15 May 1912 (approximate location 32° 21’ N, 110° 57’ W). Specimens are preserved in ethanol. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: All of the species of Gopherus and their hybrids can be easily diagnosed using molecular data. Morphologically, G. morafkai can be separated from both G. flavomarginatus and G. polyphemus in having relatively smaller front feet. Whereas the distance from the bases of the first to fourth claws is the same on all feet in G. morafkai, in the latter two species the distance from the bases of the first and third claws on the forelimb is about the same as the distance between the bases of the first and fourth claws on the hindlimb (Auffenberg and Franz 1978). The diagnosis of living specimens of G. morafkai, G. berlandieri and G. agassizii can be impossible in captive tortoises because of extensive hybridization (Edwards et al. 2010) and because of abnormalities in shell, head and limb integument from poor nutrition (Donoghue 2006). However, in non‐hybrid individuals, G. morafkai can be separated from G. berlandieri in having a rounded snout when viewed from above as opposed to a wedge‐shaped snout in G. berlandieri (Auffenberg and Franz 1978). Further, in G. morafkai the gular projections do not normally diverge, and it has a single axillary scale preceding each bridge, yet in G. berlandieri the gular projections often diverge and the axillary scales are often paired. Morphologically, G. morafkai can be separated from G. agassizii in having a relatively narrower shell, shorter gular scutes, shorter projections of the anal scutes and in having a flatter, pear‐shaped carapace (Table 1). Ecologically, whereas G. agassizii predominantly occurs in valleys and alluvial fan topography, G. morafkai prefers slopes and rocky hillsides (Riedle et al. 2008), including animals of the isolated population in northwestern Arizona (McLuckie et al. 1999). |
| Comment | Synonymy: after MURPHY et al. 2011. Note that Xerobates lepidocephalus has been synonymized with G. agassizii by CRUMLY & GRISMER 1994, a position that is also followed by the TTWG 2014 checklist but not Murphy et al. 2011 who synonymize Xerobates lepidocephalus with morafkai and more recently with G. evgoodei (Edwards et al. 2016). |
| Etymology | The new species is a patronym for the late Professor David Joseph Morafka in recognition of his many contributions to the biology and conservation of the species of Gopherus and his unsurpassed way of facilitating research, even among researchers with very different perspectives. |
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