Historical Papers
Baur. G. 1890. Note on Carettochelys Ramsay. American Naturalist. 1889:1017.
Comment: This short paper was the first publication to suspect that the Fly River Turtle was not a Pleurodire and was in fact what we now call a Cryptodire. Note that with very little to go on Baur was not only able to question the assignment to Pleurodira but also to correctly affiliate the genus with the Trionychids. Scott Thomson (2004).
Note on Carettochelys, Ramsay. - of the very remarkable Chelonian, which was found in Fly River, New Guinea, only a single specimen is known. It was described by Ramsay, in 1886, in the Proc. Linn. Soc., New South Wales, and compared with Emyda, with the remark that it appeared to be a link between the river, and the sea-turtles. Mr. Boulenger has placed it among the Pleurodira, in a new family, Carettochelydidæ.
The question is, Is it really a Pleurodiran? It is true it belongs to the Papuasian region, in which, so far, only Pleurodira have been found. There are some characters, however, not seen in the Pleurodira, but in other groups of Chelonians consisting of the families Cinosternidæ, Staurotypidæ, and Pseudotrionychidæ. It is only in this group that we find 21 periphalia (marginal bones) as in Carettochelys; the neural bones are also reduced, and the dermal shields have disapeared entirely in Pseudotrionyx ; to the later character, however, I attach little value, as it may occur in any family.
It seems to me that the systematic position of Carettochelys is far from being clear. How easy could the whole question be settled! Mr. Ramsay would do a great service to science if he would undertake to have the cervicals and the skull extracted, or the cervicals alone if he fears for the skull. This could be done without injuring the specimen, and the structure of these parts would show at once the affinities of this peculiar genus.
It is a pity that in some museums of natural history the anatomical knife is still an instrument without use. Rare or unique specimens are not allowed "to show the inside," or, in other words, to show what they really are. They are simply placed in alchohol or stuffed, to be presented to the public which has no understanding of them. There are exceptions, I am glad to say. One of these is seen in Clamydoslache, of a single specimen which came to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., and was "sacrificed" to the anatomical knife. The result is known to every zoölogist. - G. Baur.