The oblong turtle (''Chelodina oblonga''), also known commonly as the narrow-breasted snake-necked turtle and the southwestern snake-necked 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 ...

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 ...

to the southwestern part 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 ...

. The species has been successfully bred in captivity in

Cologne Zoological Garden The Aktiengesellschaft Cologne Zoological Garden is the zoo of Cologne, Germany. Being the third oldest zoo in Germany, it features over 10,000 animals of more than 850 species on more than 20 hectares. The internationally renowned zoo with an a ...

. While all turtles are popularly believed to be mute, the oblong turtle is known to have a wide range of vocalizations.

Etymology

The specific name, ''colliei'', is in honor of Scottish physician and naturalist

Alexander Collie Dr Alexander Collie (2 June 1793 – 8 November 1835) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who journeyed to Western Australia in 1829, where he was an explorer and Colonial Surgeon. Early life Collie was born in Insch in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on ...

. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Chelodina colliei'', p. 57).

Taxonomic history

This species has a very complicated taxonomic history, involving many uses of the available names and a number of mistakes in that usage.Thomson, S.A. (2000). "The identification of the holotype of ''Chelodina oblonga'' (Testudines: Chelidae) with a discussion of taxonomic implications". ''Chelonian Conservation and Biology'' 3: 745–749.Kuchling, G. (2010)
"Taxonomy and nomenclature of the longneck turtle (genus ''Chelodina'') from south-western Australia"
''Records of the Western Australian Museum'' 25: 449–454. In his original concept of the two species involved

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

1841 Gray, J.E. (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". pp. 422–449. ''In'': Grey, G. (editor) ''Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in Northwest and Western Australia'', vol. 2. Appendix. London: E.T. and W. Boone. and 1856 clearly diagnosed two species, one from northern and one from southwestern Australia. However these were considered a single wide-ranging species by Boulenger 1889. Boulenger, G.A. (1889). ''Catalogue of the Chelonians, Rhynchocephalians, and Crocodiles in the British Museum (Natural History). New Edition.'' London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). x + 311 pp. + Plates I-VI. (''Chelodina oblonga'', pp. 216-217). This mistaken concept was followed for some time but was reviewed by Burbidge (1967).Burbidge, A.A. (1967). ''The biology of south western Australian tortoises''. PhD thesis, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. Unfortunately they had mixed the names up as was brought out first by Thomson (2000) and has been summarised also by Kuchling (2010). A submission 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 put in by Thomson (2006)Thomson, S.A. (2006). "''Chelodina rugosa'' Ogilby, 1890 (currently ''Macrochelodina rugosa''; Reptilia, Testudines): proposed precedence over ''Chelodina oblonga'' Gray, 1841". ''Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature'' 63: 187–193. to maintain the prevailing usage of ''Chelodina rugosa'' over the name ''Chelodina oblonga'' for the

northern snake-necked turtle 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 ...

with further comments by several authors. In 2013 the ICZN handed down its opinion

(2013). "Opinion 2315 (Case 3351). ''Chelodina rugosa'' Ogilby, 1890 (currently ''Macrochelodina rugosa''; Reptilia, Testudines): precedence not granted over ''Chelodina oblonga'' Gray, 1841". ''Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature'' 70 (1): 57-60. on the issue where they deemed that the

Principle of Priority 270px, '' valid name. Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two asp ...

should be followed. According to that ruling, the correct name for the northern snake-necked turtle was ''Chelodina oblonga'' and for the south-western snake-necked turtle is ''Chelodina colliei''. Although that ruling required considerable effort over the ensuing 12 months to establish this nomenclature, subsequent research has reversed this finding with respect to ''Chelodina oblonga''. Kehlmaier et al. (2019) analyzed mitochondrial genomes of key type specimens and resolved several questions regarding taxonomy and nomenclature. They declared ''Chelodina oblonga'' a ''nomen dubium'', affirmed ''Chelodina colliei'' as the southwestern snake-necked turtle, and called for the name ''Chelodina rugosa'' Ogilby, 1890 to be restored to the northern snake-necked turtle. This finding was supported by the findings of Shea et al. (2020) that the supposed holotype of ''Chelodina oblonga'' was in fact part of a type series and molecular work showed it was in fact from Perth. This led to a more detailed examination of its history and the determination that it was indeed the southwestern snake-necked turtle. 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
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/ref> Thus, the correct name scientific names are ''Chelodina oblonga'' for the southwestern snake-necked turtle and ''Chelodina rugosa'' for the northern snake-necked turtle.

Synonymy

Synonymy of ''Chelodina oblonga'', and redescriptions of the type specimens, per Shea, Thomson and Georges (2020): *''Chelodina oblonga''

, 1841: 446 (misidentified type sensu Thomson 2000) **''Chelodina'' (''Macrochelodina'') ''oblonga'' — Shea,

Thomson Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson Mic ...

& Georges, 2020 *''Chelodina colliei'' Gray, 1856: 200 **''Chelodina colliei'' — Thomson, 2006 **''Macrodiremys oblonga'' — McCord & Joseph-Ouni, 2007 McCord, William P.; Joseph-Ouni, Mehdi (2007b). "A new genus of Australian longneck turtle (Testudines: Chelidae) and a new species of ''Macrochelodina'' from the Kimberley region of Western Australia (Australia)". ''Reptilia'' (GB) (Barcelona) 55: 56–64. **''Chelodina'' (''Macrodiremys'') ''colliei'' — Georges & Thomson, 2010 **''Chelodina'' (''Macrodiremys'') ''colliei'' — TTWG, 2014 **''Chelodina colliei'' — Kehlmaier et al., 2019:6 **''Chelodina'' (''Macrochelodina'') ''oblonga'' — Shea et al., 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Narrow-breasted snake-necked turtle Reptiles of Western Australia Macrochelodina Reptiles described in 1856 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Turtles of Australia Endemic fauna of Southwest Australia