An Introduction to the Macrochelodina
by Scott Thomson.
The Macrochelodina or Long Neck Turtles are indigenous to Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia. They were first described from Australia and originally included in the Chelodina. Well's and Wellington (1985) separated them from the Chelodina but included Chelodina oblonga in this designation. Iverson et al. corrected this and recognised Macrochelodina as a valid genus. Although Macrochelodina and Chelodina form a monotypic genus it is large and unweildly, particularly with respect to Chelodina oblonga hence rather than sink the name back into Chelodina we have chosen to recognise it. It will undoubtedly become established with time. The type species of the genus is Macrochelodina rugosa.
Georges et al. (2001) established what many had suspected for some time in that M. seibenrocki and M. rugosa were con-specific, and sank the former into the latter which has precedence. There are several undescribed forms as well as two described fossils, hence, the species are as follows:
Macrochelodina rugosa (Ogilby, J.B. 1890.) from Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea/ Irian Jaya.
Macrochelodina parkeri (Rhodin, A.G.J. and Mittermeier, R.A. 1976) from Western Province of Papua New Guinea.
Macrochelodina expansa (Gray, J.E. 1857.) from the Murray Darling system of Australia as well as the Queensland coast and Fraser Island.
Macrochelodina burrungandjii (Thomson S., Kennett R. and Georges A. 2000.) from the Arnhem Land Escarpment region of the Northern Territory, Australia.
Macrochelodina alanrixi ‡ (Lapparent de Broin, F. de, & Molnar, R. E., 2001.) from the Darling Downs region of southern, central Queensland, Australia.
Macrochelodina insculpta ‡ (De Vis, C.W. 1897.) from the Darling Downs region of southern, central Queensland, Australia.
‡ Fossil Form
References
de Vis, C.W. 1897. The extinct freshwater turtles of Queensland. Annals of the Queensland Museum. 3: 3-7.
Gray, J.E. 1857. Description of a new species of Chelodina from Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1856:369-371.
Lapparent de Broin, F. de, & Molnar, R. E., 2001:
Eocene chelid turtles from Redbank Plains, Southeast Queensland, Australia
–Geodiversitas: Vol. 23, #1, pp. 41-79
Ogilby, J.B. 1890. Description of a new Australian tortoise. Records of the Australian Museum 1:56-59.
Rhodin, A.G.J. and Mittermeier, R.A. 1976. Chelodina parkeri, a new species of Chelid turtle from New Guinea, with a discussion of Chelodina seibenrocki Werner, 1901. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 147(11):465-488
Thomson S., Kennett R. and 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 3:675-685
Wells, R.W. and Wellington, C.R. 1985. A classification of the amphibia and reptilia of Australia. Australian Journal of Herpetology, Supplementary Series. 1:1-61.