Checklist of Chelonians of the World

Checklist of Chelonians of the Worl

On the reclassification of Box Turtles (Terrapene): A response to Martin et al.

Species delimitation is a central issue in all fields of biology, and it is closely tied to the species concept employed. Thousands of pages have been filled with debates about competing species concepts; for instance, Coyne & Orr (2004) counted no less than 25 distinct species concepts. Among these are several phylogenetic species concepts. The paper by Martin et al. (2013) on box turtles is one of many recent publications that raise formerly recognized subspecies to the species level, based on molecular genetic evidence and favouring implicitly or explicitly a phylogenetic species concept as the theoretical foundation. We wish to underline that there is growing concern with respect to this approach (see Zachos et al. 2013 for mammals), and this concern guided our recent taxonomic update for turtles (Fritz & Havaš 2013). Without intending to enter the debate on species concepts, we will briefly explain why we are not convinced by the conclusions of Martin et al. (2013). Using sequence data of two mitochondrial genes (cyt b, COI) and one nuclear locus (GAPD), Martin et al. (2013) studied the relationships of box turtles (Terrapene) and recognized, like previous authors, the species Terrapene coahuila, T. nelsoni and T. ornata. However, with respect to the fourth generally accepted species, T. carolina, they proposed that this taxon should be split into two distinct polytypic species, T. carolina (containing the subspecies T. c. carolina, T. c. bauri and T. c. major) and T. mexicana (containing the subspecies T. m. mexicana, T. m. triunguis and T. m. yucatana). The three taxa referred to T. mexicana are fully allopatric, with the two subspecies from Mexico (mexican

Distribution range and population viability of Emys orbicularis in Slovakia: a review with conservation implications

The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) is the only native freshwater turtle species in Slovakia. Due to watercourse regulations in the middle of the 20th century, its range became fragmented and, currently, there are only two isolated populations. From a total of 1,236 historical records in Slovakia, most observations (782 records) came from the area of the Tajba National Nature Reserve (NNR). Three of the population viability analysis models (‘baseline’, ‘catastrophe’, ‘nest protection during a catastrophe’) indicated the extinction of the population in Tajba, with the highest probability of extinction occurring during a catastrophic event (probability of extinction 1.00). We also evaluated information about the activity patterns of seven radio-tracked individuals and about the number of destroyed nests from the area. During the period 2017–2021, we recorded only two turtles leaving the aquatic habitat of Tajba. An alarming fact is the massive number of destroyed nests found in the area during the study period (Tajba 524; Poľany 56). Our results indicate that the population in the Tajba NNR require immediate application of management steps to ensure its long-term survival