Chelodina Explained

Chelodina, collectively known as snake-necked turtles, is a large and diverse genus of long-necked chelid turtles with a complicated nomenclatural history. Although in the past, Macrochelodina and Macrodiremys have been considered separate genera and prior to that all the same, they are now considered subgenera of the Chelodina, further Macrochelodina and Macrodiremys are now known to apply to the same species, hence Chelydera is used for the northern snake-necked turtles.

Chelodina is an ancient group of chelid turtles native to Australia, New Guinea, the Indonesian Rote Island, and East Timor. The turtles within this subgenus are small to medium-sized with oval shaped carapace. They are side-necked turtles, meaning they tuck their head partially around the side of their body when threatened instead of directly backwards.

Chelydera represents those species that have often been termed the Chelodina B group or thick necked snake neck turtles. The subgenus was described in 2020 by Thomson & Georges (in Shea et al. 2020). They are a side-neck turtle of the family Chelidae with extremely long necks and long flattened heads. They are specialist fish eaters using a strike and gape mode of feeding. They are medium to large species with the largest Chelodina (Chelydera) expansa reaching shell lengths of some 45cm (18inches).^[1] The first fossils (C. (Chelydera) alanrixi) are known from Queensland from the Eocene period (Lapparent de Broin, F. de, & Molnar, R. E., 2001).^[2]

Macrochelodina (Wells & Wellington, 1985) is a monotypic subgenus of the Chelodina. Its sole member is the enigmatic Chelodina (Macrochelodina) oblonga from Western Australia.

Taxonomy

Current taxonomy follows that of Georges & Thomson, 2010^[3] with updates from van Dijk et al. 2014 and Shea et al. 2020.

Synonymous names for the Chelodina Fitzinger 1826 genus include: Hydraspis Bell 1828, Chelyodina Agassiz 1846:79 (nomen novum), Hesperochelodina Wells and Wellington 1985 (nomen nudum).

The type species for the Chelodina subgenus is Chelodina longicollis (Shaw, 1794). The type species for the Chelydera subgenus is Chelodina parkeri Rhodin and Mittermeier 1976. The type species for Macrochelodina is Chelodina oblonga Gray 1841.

List of species

Common name	Scientific name	IUCN Red List Status^[4]	Picture
Subgenus: Chelodina Fitzinger, 1826
Cann's snake-necked turtle	Chelodina canni McCord & Thomson, 2002^[5]
Gunalen's snake-necked turtle	Chelodina gunaleni McCord & Joseph-Ouni, 2007^[6]
Aramia snake-necked turtle	Chelodina ipudinapi Joseph-Ouni, & McCord, 2022
Eastern long-necked turtle	Chelodina longicollis (Shaw, 1794)
Roti Island snake-necked turtle McCord's snakeneck turtle	Chelodina mccordi Rhodin, 1994b^[7]
New Guinea snake-necked turtle	Chelodina novaeguineae Boulenger, 1888
Reimann's snake-necked turtle	Chelodina reimanni Philippen and Grossmann, 1990
Pritchard's snake-necked turtle	Chelodina pritchardi Rhodin, 1994a^[8]
Steindachner's long-necked turtle Dinner-plate turtle	Chelodina steindachneri Siebenrock, 1914
Subgenus: Chelydera Thomson & Georges, 2020^[9]
Arnhem Land long-necked turtle	Chelodina burrungandjii Thomson, Kennett & Georges, 2000^[10]
Giant snake-necked turtle	Chelodina expansa Gray, 1857
Kuchling's snake-necked turtle	Chelodina kuchlingi Cann, 1997^[11]
Darwin snake-necked turtle	Chelodina kurrichalpongo (Joseph-Ouni, McCord, Cann, & Smales, 2019)
Parker's snake-necked turtle	Chelodina parkeri Rhodin and Mittermeier, 1976
Northern snake-necked turtle North Australian snake-necked turtle	Chelodina rugosa Ogilby, 1890^[12]
Kimberley long neck turtle	Chelodina walloyarrina
Subgenus: Macrochelodina Wells & Wellington 1985
Southwestern snake-necked turtle Narrow-breasted snake-necked turtleOblong turtle	Chelodina oblonga Gray, 1841^[13]

Extinct species

There are three identified extinct species of Chelodina:

• Chelodina alanrixi de Broin and Molnar, 2001 is a species of snake-necked fossil turtle which was described in 2001 using material gathered in Redbank Plains, Queensland, Australia. It is a member of the Chelidae Pleurodira. The fossil has been dated to the Eocene Epoch.
• Chelodina insculpta de Vis, 1897^[14] is an extinct species of snake-necked turtle that was described in 1897 from material gathered in Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia, restricted.^[15] It is a member of the Chelidae; Pleurodira. The fossil has been dated as Pliocene to Pleistocene.
• Chelodina murrayi Yates, 2013^[16] is an extinct species of snake-necked turtle from the Waite Formation on the Alcoota Scientific Reserve, north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. The species would appear to belong to the Chelodina novaeguineae group of species within the subgenus Chelodina.

External links

• Overview of the genus Chelodina with original literature

Notes and References

1. http://www.chelodina.com/9.htm Macrochelodina expansa (Grey, 1856) - Broad-Shelled Turtle
2. Lapparent de Broin. F. de. Molnar. R. E.. 2001. Eocene chelid turtles from Redbank Plains, Southeast Queensland, Australia. Geodiversitas. 23. 1. 41–79. 1280-9659.
3. Georges . A. . Thomson . S. . Diversity of Australasian freshwater turtles, with an annotated synonymy and keys to species . Zootaxa . 2010 . 2496 . 1 . 1–37 . 10.11646/zootaxa.2496.1.1. free.
4. Book: Turtle Taxonomy Working Group. Turtle Taxonomy Working Group. [van Dijk|first2=P.P.|last3= Iverson|first3=J.B.|last4= Rhodin|first4= A.G.J.|last5=Shaffer|first5= H.B.|last6= Bour|first6= R.]. Turtles of the World, 7th edition: annotated checklist of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution with maps, and conservation status. Rhodin. A.G.J.. Pritchard. P.C.H.. van Dijk. P.P.. Saumure. R.A.. Buhlmann. K.A.. Iverson. J.B.. Mittermeier. R.A. . Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs . 7. 2014. 10.3854/crm.5.000.checklist.v7.2014. IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
5. McCord . W. P. . Thomson . S. A. . A New Species of Chelodina (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) from Northern Australia . Journal of Herpetology . 2002 . 36 . 2 . 255–267 . 10.1670/0022-1511(2002)036[0255:ANSOCT]2.0.CO;2.
6. http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Chelodina&species=gunaleni&search_param=%28%28genus%3D%27Chelodina%27%29%29 Chelodina gunaleni
7. Rhodin, Anders G.J. (1994b). Chelid turtles of the Australasian Archipelago: II. A new species of Chelodina from Roti Island, Indonesia. Breviora 498:1–31.PDF
8. Rhodin, Anders G.J. (1994a). Chelid turtles of the Australasian Archipelago: I. A new species of Chelodina from southeastern Papua New Guinea. Breviora 497:1–36. PDF
9. Shea, G., Thomson, S. & Georges, A. 2020. The identity of Chelodina oblonga Gray 1841 (Testudines: Chelidae) reassessed. Zootaxa 4779(3): 419–437. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4779.3.9. PDF
10. Thomson S., Kennett R. and Georges A. (2000). A new species of long necked turtle (Chelidae:Chelodina) from the sandstone plateau of Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 3:675-685.
11. Cann, John (1997d). Kuchling's turtle. Monitor (Journal of the Victorian Herpetological Society) 9(1):41–44,32.
12. Ogilby, J.D. 1890. Description of a new Australian tortoise. Rec. Austral. Mus. 1: 56-59
13. Gray, John Edward (1841). Gray, J.E., (1841) A Catalogue of the Species of Reptiles and Amphibia hitherto described as inhabiting Australia, with a description of some New Species from Western Australia, and some remarks on their geographical distribution. In: Grey, G. Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia, during the years 1837, 38, and 39, Under the Authority of Her Majesty's Government. Vol. 2. T. and W. Boone, London, 28 pp., 8 pls. [pp. 422–449, pls. 1–8]
14. de Vis, C.W. (1897). The extinct freshwater turtles of Queensland. Annals of the Queensland Museum 3: 3-7.
15. Thomson, S. A. 2000. A Revision of the Fossil Chelid Turtles (Pleurodira) Described by C.W. De Vis, 1897. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 45(2):593-598.
16. Yates . Adam M. . A new species of long-necked turtle (Pleurodira: Chelidae: Chelodina) from the late Miocene Alcoota Local Fauna, Northern Territory, Australia . PeerJ . 2013 . 1 . e170 . 24133635 . 10.7717/peerj.170. free . 3796373 .