''Chelodina'' (''Chelydera'') ''kuchlingi'', commonly known as Kuchling's long-necked turtle or Kuchling's turtle, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of freshwater

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Chelidae Chelidae is one of three living families of the turtle suborder Pleurodira, and are commonly called Austro-South American side-neck turtles. The family is distributed in Australia, New Guinea, parts of Indonesia, and throughout most of South Amer ...

. The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Etymology

The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''kuchlingi'', is in honor of Australian herpetologist Gerald Kuchling.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Chelodina kuchlingi'', p. 147).

Taxonomy

''Chelodina kuchlingi'' had been considered the same

as ''

Chelodina rugosa The northern snake-necked turtle or northern long-necked turtle (''Chelodina (Chelydera) rugosa'') is a species of turtle in the family Chelidae or Austro-South American Side-necked Turtles. It is native to northern Australia and southern New Gu ...

'' for the last decade, however, the species has been resurrectedTurtle Taxonomy Working Group an Dijk, P.P., Iverson, J.B., Rhodin, A.G.J., Shaffer, H.B., and Bour, R. (2014). Turtles of the world, 7th edition: annotated checklist of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution with maps, and conservation status. In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Pritchard, P.C.H., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Iverson, J.B., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group
Chelonian Research Monographs 5(7):000.329–479
doi:10.3854/ crm.5.000.checklist.v7.2014. and is now believed to come from the Northern Kimberley regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, Australia. Evidence it is a species has only recently been published with genetic results taken from the holotype showing it differed by 4% of loci from its nearest relativesKehlmaier, C., Zhang, X., Georges, A., Campbell, P.D., Thomson, S., & Fritz, U. 2019. Mitogenomics of historical type specimens of Australasian turtles: clarification of taxonomic confusion and old mitochondrial introgression. Scientific Reports (2019) 9:5841. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42310-x the species is only known from the holotype at this time.

Biology

Little is known about ''C. kuchlingi'', and a number of research projects are underway to evaluate it.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4992760 Chelydera Turtles of Australia Reptiles described in 1997