Northern Snake-necked Turtle
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The northern snake-necked turtle or northern long-necked turtle (''Chelodina (Chelydera) rugosa'') is a species of turtle in the family
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 ...
or Austro-South American Side-necked Turtles. It is native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea. The species was described in 1890 from material collected in Cape York of Queensland, Australia. The species has in recent years had several species of turtle synonymised with it, the distribution includes northern
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 ...
, Indonesia and Pitcairn. As a member of the sub-family Pleurodira this species is a side-necked turtle and also a snake-necked strike and gape predator. This carnivorous turtle will consume fish, tadpoles, hatchling turtles, worms, crickets, etc. It is not an aggressive species with a biting defense. Individuals tend to flail to escape rather than bite. This species can be found not only in fresh water, but due to the proximity of the south New Guinea coast and close off shore islands, it also can be found in brackish water. ''Chelodina rugosa'' tends to hide under and between rocks and logs where possible or buries itself in the mud to act as an ambush predator to fish, amphibian, and invertebrate prey. Sexual dimorphism is quite evident in this species. Females can be easily recognized by the very short, stubby tail.


Taxonomic history

This species has had a rather convoluted taxonomic history. Initially described in 1841 by John Edward GrayGray, John Edward. (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 Northwest and Western Australia''. London: T. and W. Boone, Vol. 2. Appendix E, pp. 422–449. it was later synonymised (as senior synonym) with ''
Chelodina colliei The oblong turtle (''Chelodina oblonga''), also known commonly as the narrow-breasted snake-necked turtle and the southwestern snake-necked turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Chelidae. The species is endemic to the southwestern pa ...
''Boulenger, G.A. 1889. Catalogue of the Chelonians, Rhynchocephalians, and Crocodiles in the British Museum (Natural History) London: Trustees of the Museum, 311pp. and for many years northern and western
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 ...
was believed to have a single species. In 1967, the species was separated from the south-western Australian species but the name was incorrectly applied to that species with the name ''Chelodina siebenrocki'' applied to the northern form. Just eight years later it was found that the name ''Chelodina rugosa'' J. D. Ogilby 1890 had precedence over ''Chelodina siebenrocki'' and for many years after this that name was used for this species.Cogger, H.G., Cameron, E.E. and Cogger, H.M. (1983). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 1. Amphibia and Reptilia. Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra. 313pp. In 2000, it was found that the holotype of ''Chelodina oblonga'' was in fact a northern long-neck turtle and hence a petition was put in to conserve the now well established name of ''Chelodina rugosa''. This petition to the
ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...
was ultimately overturned with the direction to use the Principal of Priority to determine the names, hence the name ''Chelodina oblonga'' is the correct name for this species. More recently using mitagenomics of the types it was found that the specimen assumed to be the holotype of ''Chelodina oblonga'', in all likelihood, could not be. It was clearly collected in northern Australia and described as such by Gray with characters that are true of the northern species. However, its genomics suggest it is from Perth calling into question whether the unlabelled specimen figured in Gray 1841 was in fact the same as the specimen described. As such the name ''Chelodina rugosa'' has been resurrected for the species and ''Chelodina oblonga'' declared a ''nomen dubium'', rendering it unusable. Subspecies are recognised by some for this species, basically geographic variants of doubtful significance. However, these are ''Chelodina (Chelydera) rugosa'' from Queensland and ''Chelodina (Chelydera) siebenrocki'' from New Guinea.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
/ref>


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 ...
, ''siebenrocki'', is in honor of Austrian herpetologist Friedrich Siebenrock.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Chelodina siebenrocki'', p. 243).


Reproduction

Like all turtles, the northern snake-necked turtle is
oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...
. Unlike any other turtle, however, ''C. rugosa'' lays her eggs underwater. Aboriginal Australians have had knowledge of this reproductive behavior for many generations, but the first published report was by Kennett ''et al.'' in 1993.Kennett, R., Christian, K. & Pritchard, D. 1993. Underwater nesting by the tropical freshwater turtle, ''Chelodina rugosa'' (Testudinata: Chelidae). ''Australian Journal of Zoology'' 41:47-52. doi:10.1071/zo9930047 Nests are excavated in soft substrate in billabongs and other ephemeral bodies of slow-moving fresh water toward the end of the wet season (austral summer, Dec-April). An average of 12 eggs are buried under 6–20 cm of sediment in shallow (<2 m) water. As the dry season progresses and the waters recede, the nests eventually dry out, and only then - when atmospheric oxygen is availableKennett, R., Georges, A. & Palmer-Allen, M. 1993. Early developmental arrest during immersion of eggs of a tropical freshwater turtle, ''Chelodina rugosa'' (Testudinata: Chelidae), from Northern Australia. ''Australian Journal of Zoology'' 41:37-45. doi:10.1071/zo9930037 - do the embryos within the eggs resume growth. Exhibiting a reproductive strategy almost unique among reptiles, embryos of ''C. rugosa'' can survive at least 12 weeks of submersion. The hatchlings emerge approximately 70 days after resumption of development.


Gallery

File:Chelodina oblonga description.jpg, Chelodina oblonga description File:Chelodina oblonga niclos v testudines org 003 004 ful.jpg, Chelodina oblonga niclos v testudines org 003 004 ful File:Chelodina oblonga head and neck.jpg, Chelodina oblonga head and neck File:Chelodina oblonga niclos v testudines org 003 002 ful.jpg, Chelodina oblonga niclos v testudines org 003 002 ful File:Chelodina oblonga niclos v testudines org 003 003 ful.jpg, Chelodina oblonga niclos v testudines org 003 003 ful File:Chelodina oblonga less than one year.jpg, Chelodina oblonga head detail, Baby less than one year File:Chelodina oblonga draw pencil.jpg, Chelodina oblonga draw pencil


References


External links

* * Testudines.org catalog project (2015).
'Chelodina oblonga''2016 >Turtles and tortoise Catalog.
Readed 18 December 2016.
Video of a Northern Snake-necked Turtle in the wild on Youtube
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2697599 Chelydera Turtles of Australia Reptiles described in 1841 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN