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  ©Jan Matiaska, &
  Scott Thomson,
   2003-2006




 

 

DISCUSSION

     The monophyly of the Chelodina longicollis group has been demonstrated using electrophoresis (Georges & Adams, 1992) and mtDNA studies (Seddon et al., 1997) and using morphology it has been suggested that Chelodina steindachneri is sister to all other members of that group (Rhodin, 1994b). However, the allozyme and sequence studies have demonstrated that Chelodina oblonga is the sister of the Chelodina longicollis group and not a part, as previously thought, of the Chelodina expansa group (Seddon et al., 1997). The morphological evidence (Thomson et al., 1997a; Thomson, 2000) supports this finding. It has demonstrated that Chelodina novaeguineae is restricted to New Guinea and does not occur in Australia, and hence the Australian population is a distinct species, herein described as Chelodina canni. A phylogeny for the Chelodina based on allozyme electrophoresis is presented in the forthcoming Georges and Adams paper and a complete morphological analysis which will incorporate the allozyme data is forthcoming from Thomson, hence, we do not propose to produce one here.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

     We thank Arthur Georges of the Applied Ecology Research Group and John Cann for collecting many of the specimens loaned to us; the Northern Territory and Queensland Departments of Environment for granting permission for such collecting; and the Australian Nature Conservation Agency for granting permission to export the live specimens to the senior author. Anders Rhodin preserved the types, measured eggs and hatchlings, and shared data from previous research. John Iverson, of Earlham College, guided the senior author in the early stages of this manuscript; Paul Horner of the Northern Territory Museum registered the type specimens. Patrick Couper and Jaenette Covacevich of the Queensland Museum, John Cann, Arthur Georges, John Iverson, Rod Kennett and Anders Rhodin provided comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

 

CITED REFERENCES

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Cann J. 1972. Notes on some tortoises collected in northern Australia. Victorian Naturalist 89: 165-168.
Cann J. 1978. Tortoises of Australia. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
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Georges A, Adams M, McCord W. 2002. Delineation of species boundaries and a phylogeny for the snake-necked freshwater turtles of Australasia (Testudines: Chelidae: Chelodina). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (in press).
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Georges A, Thomson S. 2002. Evolution and Zoogeography of the Australian Freshwater Turtles. In: Merrick JR, Archer M, Hickey G, Lee M, eds. Evolution and Zoogeography of Australasian Vertebrates. Sydney: AUSCIPUB (Australian Scientific Publishing) Pty. Ltd.
Goode J. 1967. Freshwater Tortoises of Australia and New Guinea (in the Family Chelidae). Melbourne: Lansdowne Press.
Iverson, J., Thomson, S. and Georges, A. 2001. Validity of the taxonomic changes for turtles proposed by Wells and Wellington. Journal of Herpetology. 35:365-368.
Kennett R, Georges A, Thomas K, Georges TC. 1992. Distribution of the long-necked freshwater turtle Chelodina novaeguineae and new information on its ecology. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 32: 179-182.
King M, Horner P. 1987. An additional freshwater turtle species and the confirmation of Chelodina novaeguineae in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Beagle 4(1): 83-84.
Rhodin AGJ. 1994a. Chelid turtles of the Australian archipelago: I. A new species of Chelodina from southeastern Papua New Guinea. Breviora 497: 1-36.
Rhodin AGJ. 1994b. Chelid turtles of the Australian archipelago: II. A new species of Chelodina from Roti Island, Indonesia. Breviora 498: 1-31.
Rhodin AGJ, Mittermeier RA. 1977. Neural bones in chelid turtles from Australia and New Guinea. Copeia 1977: 370-372.
Seddon JM, Georges A, Baverstock PR, McCord W. 1997. Phylogenetic relationships of chelid turtles (Pleurodira: Chelidae) based on mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequence variation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 7: 55-61.
Thomson SA. 2000. On the identification of the holotype of Chelodina oblonga (Testudinata: Chelidae) with a discussion of the taxonomic implications. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 3: 745-749.
Thomson SA, Adams M, Seddon S, Georges A. 1997a. The western Australian turtle Chelodina oblonga (Testudines: Chelidae) and its phylogenetic placement within the genus Chelodina [Abstract]. Joint Meeting of the American Society of Icthyologists and Herpetologists, the Herpetologists League and the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Seattle, Washington, June 26 to July 2 1997.
Thomson SA, Georges A. 1996. Neural bones in chelid turtles. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2: 82-86.
Thomson SA, Kennett R, Georges A. 2000. A new species of long necked turtle (Chelidae:Chelodina) from the sandstone plateau of Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 3(4): 675-685.
Thomson SA, Mackness B. 1999. Fossil turtles from the early Pliocene Bluff Downs Local Fauna, with a description of a new species of Elseya. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 123: 101-105.
Thomson SA, White A, Georges A. 1997b. Re-evaluation of Emydura lavarackorum: Identification of a living fossil. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 42: 327-336.
Wells R, Wellington R. 1985. A classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia. Australian Journal of Herpetology, Supplementary Series 1: 1-61.

 

 

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