Podocnemis
Genus of turtles
Podocnemis is a genus of aquatic turtles, commonly known as South American river turtles, in the family Podocnemididae. The genus consists of six extant species occurring in tropical South America. Four additional species are known only from fossils. These turtles have pig-like noses but are not closely related to the pig-nosed turtle.
01Species
These six species are extant.
- Podocnemis erythrocephala (Spix, 1824), red-headed Amazon River turtle
- Podocnemis expansa (Schweigger, 1812), Arrau turtle
- Podocnemis lewyana A.H.A. Duméril, 1852, Magdalena River turtle
- Podocnemis sextuberculata Cornalia, 1849, six-tubercled Amazon River turtle
- Podocnemis unifilis Troschel, 1848, yellow-spotted river turtle, yellow-headed sideneck
- Podocnemis vogli L. Müller, 1935, savanna side-necked turtle
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Podocnemis.
Fossil species
The following four species are extinct, all from Neogene deposits in South America:
- Podocnemis bassleri †
- Podocnemis medemi †
- Podocnemis pritchardi †
- Podocnemis tatacoensis †Cadena & Vanegas, 2023.
The Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) species "Podocnemis" parva Haas, 1978, based on remains from the West Bank, is now assigned to Algorachelus, as A. parvus.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Podocnemis”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Podocnemis unifilis.jpg by Daiju Azuma, CC BY-SA 2.5
- Podocnemis bassleri AMNH 1662 cast.jpg by Smokeybjb, CC BY-SA 3.0
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