First record of albinism in the Crowned River Turtle, Hardella thurjii, Gray, 1831 (Reptilia: Testudines, Geoemydidae)

Dutta, Sreeparna, Pareek, Pawan Shantiprakash, Singh, Arunima, Riedle, J. Daren, Singh, Shailendra (2022): First record of albinism in the Crowned River Turtle, Hardella thurjii, Gray, 1831 (Reptilia: Testudines, Geoemydidae). Zootaxa 5091 (1): 197-200, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5091.1.1

Habitat Associations of Aquatic Turtle Communities in Eastern Oklahoma

North American river systems have experienced an array of anthropogenic influences. Very little baseline data exist for tracking population trends in relation to these activities. Between 1997 and 1999, we sampled 67 sites in 16 counties of eastern Oklahoma during a survey for the Alligator Snapping Turtle, Macrochelys temminckii. We captured 93% (13/14) of the aquatic turtle species that have been recorded from eastern Oklahoma. Canonical Correspondence Analysis of site-by-species-by-habitat separated some turtles by habitat type: (1) those of faster flowing, less turbid stretches with more pools and runs (Pseudemys concinna, Sternotherus carinatus), (2) those of middle, slower reaches of streams and backwater habitats (Chelydra serpentina, Macrochelys temminckii, Sternotherus odoratus, Trachemys scripta), and (3) those of lower reaches with slow-moving deep water with clay substrates and steep, overhanging banks (Apalone spinifera, Graptemys ouachitensis, Graptemys pseudogeographica). We compared our data with previous distributional records to reveal one range extension and one possible range contraction. We observed differences in capture rates among the 12 rivers in our study, with particularly low capture rates in the southeastern Kiamichi, Mountain Fork, and Little rivers

The dazed and confused identity of Agassiz’s land tortoise, Gopherus agassizii (Testudines: Testudinidae) with the description of a new species and its consequences for conservation

We investigate a cornucopia of problems associated with the identity of the desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii Cooper. The date of publication is found to be 1861, rather than 1863. Only one of the three original cotypes exists, and it is designated as the lectotype of the species. Another cotype is found to have been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire. The third is lost. The lectotype is genetically confirmed to be from California, and not Arizona, USA as sometimes reported. Maternally, the holotype of G. lepidocephalus Ottley et Velázques Solis, 1989 from the Cape Region of Baja California Sur, Mexico is also from the Mojavian population of the desert tortoise, and not from Tiburon Island, Sonora, Mexico as previously proposed. A suite of characters serve to diagnose tortoises west and north of the Colorado River, the Mojavian population, from those east and south of the river in Arizona, USA and Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico, the Sonoran population. Species recognition is warranted and because G. lepidocephalus is from the Mojavian population no names are available for the Sonoran species. Thus, a new species, Gopherus morafkai sp. n., is named and this action reduces the distribution of G. agassizii to only 30% of its former range. This reduction has important implications for the conservation and protection of G. agassizii, which may deserve a higher level of protection