Mekong snail-eating turtle explained

See also: Malayemys macrocephala.

The Mekong snail-eating turtle (Malayemys subtrijuga) is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae. It was monotypic within the genus Malayemys until Brophy (2004, 2005)^[1] reevaluated (based on morphology) Malayemys macrocephala (Gray, 1859),^[2] which has been long time considered to be a synonym of M. subtrijuga.

Distribution

The Mekong snail-eating turtle is found in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia, Laos, southern Vietnam, and Thailand and the northern Malay Peninsula, and Java, Indonesia.^[3] It could have been introduced to Java via human intervention from the Mekong River Basin. The occurrence of the species in Indonesia is regarded by Brophy (2005) to be allochthonous, i.e., non-native (Sumatra) or extinct (Java).

Notes and References

1. Brophy. Timothy R.. 2004. Geographic variation and systematics in the south-east Asian turtles of the genus Malayemys (Testudines: Bataguridae). Hamadryad. 29. 63–73. Digital Commons.
2. Gray, John Edward. (1859). Description of a new species of freshwater tortoise from Siam. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1859(27):478–479.
3. Brophy. Timothy R.. 2005. Geographic distribution of the Southeast Asian turtles in the Genus Malayemys (Testudines: Bataguridae). Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society. 40. 21–33. Digital Commons.