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Pelomedusa gehafie (RÜPPELL, 1835)

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Higher TaxaPelomedusidae, Pelomedusoidea, Pleurodira, Testudines (turtles)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymPentonyx gehafie RÜPPELL 1835: 2
Pentonyx gehafie — DUMÉRIL 1852: 245
Pelomedusa gehafie — BLANFORD 1870: 444
Pelomedusa galeata var. disjuncta VAILLANT & GRANDIDIER 1910
Pelomedusa gehafie — PETZOLD et al. 2014
Pelomedusa gehafie — TTWG 2017: 203
Pelomedusa gehafie — TTWG 2021 
DistributionEritrea

Type locality: eastern slope of coastal mountains, Eritrea  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesLectotype: SMF 7947, Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt am Main (designated by Mertens 1937) 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Medium-sized, light-coloured helmeted terrapins with a known maximum straight carapacial length of 17.8 cm. Pectoral scutes triangular and in adults widely separated from plastral midseam (in hatchlings the tips of the triangular pectorals may meet at the plastral midseam). One large undivided temporal scale on each side of head. Two small barbels under chin. Carapace unpatterned light coloured. Plastron in adults completely yellow. Pelomedusa gehafie differs from all other Pelomedusa species except P. schweinfurthi and P. somalica by the presence of guanine (G) instead of adenine (A) at position 256 of the 360-bp-long reference alignment of the 12S rRNA gene (Supporting Information). Pelomedusa gehafie differs from P. schweinfurthi and P. somalica by the presence of thymine (T) instead of cytosine (C) at positions 125, 267, 287 and 345, by the presence of adenine (A) instead of guanine (G) at position 180, by the presence of guanine (G) instead of adenine (A) at position 223, by the presence of cytosine (C) instead of thymine (T) at position 236, and by the presence of adenine (A) instead of cytosine (C) or thymine (T) at position 268. Furthermore, P. gehafie differs from P. schweinfurthi by the presence of cytosine (C) or guanine (G) instead of adenine (A) at position 147, by the presence of adenine (A) instead of guanine (G) at positions 148 and 297, by the presence of cytosine (C) instead of adenine (A) at positions 166, 191 and 303, by the presence of thymine (T) instead of cytosine (C) at positions 266 and 326, by the presence of cytosine (C) instead of thymine (T) at position 279, by the presence of cytosine (C) instead of a gap at position 298, and by the presence of guanine (G) instead of adenine (A) at position 305. In addition to the above mentioned characters, P. gehafie differs from P. somalica by the presence of adenine (A) instead of thymine (T) at position 94, by the presence of cytosine (C) instead of thymine (T) at positions 95, 122 and 131, by the presence of adenine (A) instead of cytosine (C) at position 123, by the presence of thymine (T) instead of cytosine (C) at position 124, and by the presence of adenine (A) instead of guanine (G) at position 332 [from PETZOLD et al. 2014]. 
CommentSynonymy: MERTENS 1967 listed this species as a synonym of P. subrufa.

Distribution: Map: Petzold et al. 2014

Habitat: freshwater () 
References
  • Blanford, W.T. 1870. Observations of the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, made 1867-68. McMillan (London), xii + 487 pp. - get paper here
  • Bour, R. 2008. Global diversity of turtles (Chelonii; Reptilia) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595:593–598 - get paper here
  • Duméril, A.H.A. 1852. Description des reptiles nouveaux ou imparfaitement connus de la collection du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, et remarques sur la classification et les charactéres des reptiles. Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris, 6: 209-264. - get paper here
  • Fritz, U., T. Mazuch, A. Petzold & H. Prokop 2015. Coloration and pattern of hatchlings of six Pelomedusa species. Salamandra 51 (3): 277-282 - get paper here
  • Fritz, U., Tolley, K. A., Vamberger, M., & Ihlow, F. 2022. Phylogeny and phylogeography of chelonians from sub-Saharan Africa—A review of current knowledge in tribute to Margaretha D. Hofmeyr. Vertebrate Zoology, 72: 951-969 - get paper here
  • Mertens, R. 1967. Die herpetologische Sektion des Natur-Museums und Forschungs-Institutes Senckenberg in Frankfurt am Main nebst einem Verzeichnis ihrer Typen. Senckenbergiana Biologica 48: 1-106 - get paper here
  • PETZOLD, ALICE; MARIO VARGAS-RAMÍREZ, CHRISTIAN KEHLMAIER, MELITA VAMBERGER, WILLIAM R. BRANCH, LOUIS DU PREEZ, MARGARETHA D. HOFMEYR, LEON MEYER, ALFRED SCHLEICHER, PAVEL ŠIROKÝ & UWE FRITZ 2014. A revision of African helmeted terrapins (Testudines: Pelomedusidae: Pelomedusa), with descriptions of six new species. Zootaxa 3795 (5): 523–548 - get paper here
  • Rüppell, E. 1835. Neue Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abyssinien gehörig, entdeckt und beschrieben. Amphibien. S. Schmerber, Frankfurt a. M. - get paper here
  • Spawls, Stephen; Tomáš Mazuch & Abubakr Mohammad 2023. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of North-east Africa. Bloomsbury, 640 pp. - 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
  • Vaillant, L. & Grandidier, G. 1910. Volume XVII. Histoire naturelle des reptiles. Première partie: Crocodiles et tortues. In: Grandidier, A. & Grandidier, G. (Eds.), Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, pp. 1–86, plates 1–27
 
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