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Myuchelys latisternum (GRAY, 1867)

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Higher TaxaChelidae, Chelodininae, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Northern Australian Snapping Turtle, Saw-shelled Turtle 
SynonymElseya latisternum GRAY 1867
Euchelymys spinosa GRAY 1871
Elseya latisternon — GRAY 1871
Emydura latisternum — BOULENGER 1889
Emydura signata AHL 1932
Emydura latisternum — WERMUTH & MERTENS 1977
Elseya latisternon — THIEME 1984
Elseya latisternum — ERNST & BARBOUR 1989: 42
Elseya latisternum — COGGER 2000: 194
Elseya latisternum — BONIN et al 2006
Elseya latisternum — FRITZ & HAVAS 2007
Wollumbinia latisternum — WELLS 2007 (unavailable name)
Wollumbinia latisternum — HAMANN et al. 2008
Wollumbinia latisternum — WELLS 2009
Wollumbinia dorsii WELLS 2009 (fide THOMSON & GEORGES 2010)
Wollumbinia spinosa — WELLS 2009 (unavailable name)
Myuchelys latisternum — THOMSON & GEORGES 2009
Wollumbinia latisternum — WILSON & SWAN 2010
Myuchelys latisternum — GEORGES & THOMSON 2010
Myochelys latisternum — VALVERDE 2010 (in error)
Myuchelys latisternum — TTWG 2014: 434
Wollumbinia latisternum — COGGER 2014: 255
Wollumbinia latisternum — CANN & SADLIER 2017
Wollumbinia latisternum — SWAN et al. 2017
Myuchelys latisternum — THOMSON et al. 2021
Myuchelys latisternum — TTWG 2021 
DistributionNE Australia (from the Cape York Peninsula southward to northern New South Wales; Northern Territory, Queensland)

Type locality: "North Australia”.

dorsii: Australia (New South Wales); Type locality: Richmond River, near Wiangaree, New South Wales.  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 67.5.13.19-20, Cape York Qld, collected by E. Dämel, purchased Museum Godeffroy. See Cann & Sadlier (2017) and SMales et al. 2019 for discussion of the identity of the type specimens.
Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.22.77 [Euchelymys spinosa]
Holotype: AMS R172224, adult female in the Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW. Collected by Richard W. Wells on 6 December, 2008. The holotype was taken active at 1500 hrs in 1-2 metres water depth in a riffle zone over a mixed sediment bottom of basalt, sand and flood silt. [dorsii] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus Myuchelys): A member of the short-necked chelid turtles of the Australasian region which, excluding Pseudemydura umbrina (Siebenrock, 1901), together form a well-established clade (Georges & Adams, 1992; Georges, et al., 1998). Differs from other short-necked turtles of the clade in possessing the following combination of characters (Table 1): Absence of a well-developed alveolar ridge on the triturating surfaces and underlying bones of the jaw (Fig. 1B) (present only in the redefined Elseya, Fig. 1A); parietal arch of skull wide, nearly as wide as tympanum (Fig. 2) (narrower than the tympanum in Elseya and Emydura); large distinctive head shield, entire, that extends in part down the parietal arch toward the tympanum (absent in Emydura, not extending down the parietal arch in Elseya, Rheodytes and Elusor); ilium-carapace suture involves pleurals 7–8 and the pygal (as in Elusor but distinct from the condition in Elseya and Emydura); anterior bridge strut is confluent with the rib-gomphosis of pleural one; no angle of intersection between these two bony units when viewed ventrally (as in Elusor, but unlike Elseya, Emydura and Rheodytes – see Fig. 1 and 2 of Thomson, et al., 1997).


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CommentType species: Elseya latisternum Gray, 1867 is also the type species of the genus Myuchelys THOMSON & GEORGES 2009 (partly based on a phylogenetic analysis in GEORGES & THOMSON 2006). Elseya latisternum is the type species of the new genus Wollumbinia WELLS 2007. VAN DIJK et al. (2011) considered the genus Wollumbinia as a nomen illegitum. The issue may only be resolved by the ICZN which does not have clear criteria for such cases (I. Smales, pers. comm., 4 March 2021, Cogger et al. 2017).

Synonymy: following Gray (1872), Boulenger (1889), Georges & Thomson (2010), and Fritz & Havas (2007). Kaiser et al. 2013 considered the generic name Wollumbinia Wells 2007 invalid and rejected its use in favor of Myuchelys. 
EtymologyThe genus name is a combination of a contraction of the Aboriginal word for clear water, Myuna, and the Greek word for tortoises, chelys. It is a generalised reference to the types of habitat often preferred by the species of this genus.  
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.
  • Cann, J. 1972. Notes on some tortoises collected in Northern Australia. Victorian Naturalist 89: 165-168 - get paper here
  • Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Cogger, Harold; Glenn Shea; Patrick Couper 2017. Comment (Case 3601) – Some matters arising from the Case and the broader issues involved and the need to remove ambiguity in Chapter 3 of the Code The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 73(2-4):106-112 - get paper here
  • Ernst,C.H. and Barbour,R.W. 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. - London
  • Gaffney, Eugene S. 1977. The side-necked turtle family Chelidae: a theory of relationships using shared derived characters. American Museum Novitates (2620): 1-28 - 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. 2006. Evolution and Zoogeography of Australian FreshwaterTurtles. In: Merrick et al. (eds.) Evolution and Biogeography of Australasian Vertebrates. Auscipub Pty Ltd, Oatlands, NSW, 291-308 (+ 2 plates)
  • Georges, A.; J. Birrell, K. M. Saint, W. McCord und S. C. Donnellan 1998. A phylogeny for side-necked turtles (Chelonia: Pleurodira) based on mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequence variation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 67: 213-246 [1999] - get paper here
  • Gray, J.E. 1872. On a four-bearded water-terrapin from North Australia. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) 9: 303 - get paper here
  • Gray,J.E. 1867. Description of a new Australian tortoise (Elseya latisternum). Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 20: 43-45 - get paper here
  • Gray,J.E. 1871. On Euchelymys, a new genus and two new species of Australian freshwater tortoises. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) 8: 117-118 - get paper here
  • Gray,J.E. 1871. Notes on Australian freshwater tortoises. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) 8: 291-292 - get paper here
  • HAMANN, M., SCHÄUBLE, C.S., EMERICK, S.P., LIMPUS, D.J. & LIMPUS, C.J. 2008. Freshwater turtle populations in the Burnett River. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 52 (2): 221-232 - get paper here
  • Kaiser, H.; Crother, B.I.; Kelly, C.M.R.; Luiselli, L.; O’Shea, M.; Ota, H.; Passos, P.; Schleip, W.D. & Wüster, W. 2013. Best Practices: In the 21st Century, Taxonomic Decisions in Herpetology are Acceptable Only When Supported by a Body of Evidence and Published via Peer-Review. Herpetological Review 44 (1): 8-23
  • Pachmann, A. 2009. Endlich Urlaub. Reptilia (Münster) 14 (79): 10-12 - get paper here
  • Prokop, H. 2010. Haltung und Nachzucht der Breitbrust-Schnappschildkröte, Myuchelys latisternum (Elseya latisternum). Reptilia (Münster) 15 (85): 31-37 - get paper here
  • Seddon, J. M.;Georges, A.;Baverstock, P. R.;McCord, W. 1997. Phylogenetic relationships of chelid turtles (Pleurodira: Chelidae) based on mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequence variation. Mol Phylogenet Evol 7 (1): 55-61 - get paper here
  • Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp.
  • Thieme, U. 1984. Eine unbekannte Elseya ? Sauria 6 (3): 13-15 - get paper here
  • Thomson, R. C., Spinks, P. Q., & Shaffer, H. B. 2021. A global phylogeny of turtles reveals a burst of climate-associated diversification on continental margins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (7) - get paper here
  • Thomson, S. & Georges, A. 2009. Myuchelys gen. nov. —a new genus for Elseya latisternum and related forms of Australian freshwater turtle (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae). Zootaxa 2053: 32-42 - get paper here
  • TTWG; Dijk, Peter Paul van; John B. Iverson, H. Bradley Shaffer; Roger Bour & Anders G.J. Rhodin [turtle taxonomy working group] 2011. Turtles of the World, 2011 Update: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status. Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5: 78 pp.; doi:10.3854/crm.5.000.checklist.v4.2011 - 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
  • Valverde, J. 2010. Schlangenhalsschildkröten. Reptilia (Münster) 15 (85): 16-23 [erratum in 86: 10] - get paper here
  • Wells, R. W. 2007. Some taxonomic and nomenclatural considerations on the class Reptilia in Australia. A new genus of the family Chelidae from eastern Australia. Australian Biodiversity Record (3): 1–13 - get paper here
  • Wells, Richard W. 2009. Some Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Considerations on the Class Reptilia in Australia. A New Species of Freshwater Turtle in the Genus Wollumbinia Wells 2007 (Reptilia: Chelidae) from Eastern Australia. Australian Biodiversity Record (1): 1-12
  • White A W; Archer M 1994. Emydura lavarackorum, a new Pleistocene turtle (Pleurodira: Chelidae) from fluviatile deposits at Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland. Rec. South Austral. Mus. 27 (2): 159-167 - get paper here
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
 
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