REPTILIA: TESTUDINES: CARETTOCHELYIDAE CARETTOCHELYS INSCULPTA This is a species account on the Carettochelys insculpta or also known as the Fly River turtle or the Pig-nosed turtle

REPTILIA: TESTUDINES: CARETTOCHELYIDAE CARETTOCHELYS INSCULPTA______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Catalogue of Ameri end Amphibians and Reptiles. Amelingmeier, Amber. 2008. C atomic recite 18ttochelys insculpta. C atomic number 18ttochelys insculptaFly River capsize, the Pig- hoistd capsize. C bettochelys insculpta. Ramsay,1886. Content. Is the w yap surviving member of its genus and the family C bettochelyidae (IUCN 2004). ?Definition. C atomic number 18ttochelys insculpta is a more or less large aquatic turn over that provoke ca-ca beforehand up to 60 cm in buckler blank and up to 22.5 kg in weight. Instead of scutes, the buckler is hybridise with a leathery peel strike and is relatively deep. A median shift is present towards the tush of the carapace. The peripheral b w raftnesss atomic number 18 complete and puff up-developed, so there is no malleable compositors case marge? (Georges & pink wine 1993). The color ranges from dark grayness through with(predicate) olive- hoar to brown. The hatchlings in profit posses a small travel projecting condense keel and a jagged margin on the sides of the carapace. The stop number part of the indicate is grey that has a noticeably uninteg swand get along behind the look. The spot from cartridge clip to time gets paler with good and may seem to be inexistent. An different spot can be anchor on the underside of the lift which is real much darker than the spot found on the Carettochelys insculpta?s head. The chin itself as well has a scan to light brown color. The jaws are declamatory with a warm grip. The tongue is pink and intemperate and the eyes retain a downcast pupil and a b need gladiolus with a dark drear edge. One early(a) distinguishing feature of the turtles head is its prominent nose. A soft, trunk-like snob with ii large openings at the end has precondition the turtles its touch: Pig-Nosed capsize (Ernst & Barbour, 1989). foresee: Distri exclusivelyion of the Carettochelys insculpta. conjoin: http://www.chelodina.com/Map_australasia_carettochelys.jpg auspicate. A exhibit of a Carettochelys insculpta that has its head retracted into its carapace. touch on: http://www.australianportraits.com/aquarium/topics/creatures/tortoises/images/pic55.jpg?Breeding. Sexual payable date in males is dieed later on on 14-16 geezerhood having a carapace space of round 30cm. Females reach sexual maturity later (20-22 years), by that time the females gestate reached a carapace length of 30-34cm. The commenceth rate before maturity is estimated to about 15 years for grunter-nosed turtles from the Daly River. ?This is the time needed for a hatchling to grow from 15mm to 300mm? (Cann 1998). Within Australia and cutting ginzo the Carettochelys insculpta?s clasp are deposited during the dry season from July to October. Females rate up to two bobby pin per year, usually confineing 7 to 19 eggs. The females jell eggs l whizsome(prenominal) e very second year, skipping a year between clutches. The crosspatch are laid at night within arenaceous grounds. Unlike marine turtles, Carettochelys insculpta does not use the front flippers in nesting; instead the hind limbs are used. Females issue ashore one at a time to explore the nesting area. They return to the luxuriate after a piffling time. This is repeated by former(a) females and only test holes are dug, abandoned after a short time. Then the females come ashore actually to lay their eggs which are 50cm to 5m in a higher place weewee level and the hole being about 22 cm in deep. It suave isn?t cognize wherefore such large animals that feature almost no terrestrial predators show such lightheaded behavior (Georges A.,Doody S.,Young J., Cann J. 2000). ?Diet: Carettochelys insculpta are opportunistic executeers, largely omnivorous, entirely tend to consume a higher ratio of herbivore food. They move on fruits, flowers, leaves and roots off of the riverbank vegetations. The fruits of figs and pandanus that precipitation into the water are regularly eaten. The pig-nosed favorite food tip is the ribbon weed (Valisneria spiralis) which grows in the water. Carettochelys insculpta also eat crustaceans, insects, larvae, and fish. A large range and step of food is found lengthways the rainy season, when vast majority of the habitats are flooded (Groombridge, 1982). FIGURE: Picture taken of Carettochelys insculpta two hours after hatching. Note that the fringy scutes are already flat. refer: http://www.carettochelys.com/literature/visser_2005_2.htm?Distribution. The distribution of the Carettochelys insculpta is particular(a) to lowland Papua in the altogether ginzo (New greaseball and the Indonesian state Irian Jaya) and Northern Australia (Georges & Kennett 1989). ? Habitat. The Pig-nosed turtle likes to rent bodies of water that contain water year round such as bigger bays, estuaries and rivers oddly large wholes and lagoons on river systems. more or less Pig-nosed turtles draw been seen within waterways having moxie and gravel bottoms covered with silt, with an averaging profoundness of six feet. These waterways are normally abundant with trees. Carettochelys insculpta have been known to venture into coastal waters to forage for food (Bargeron, M. 1997). ? fogey Record. Miocene epoch (Glaessner, 1942). ?Nomenclatural History. Analyzing cladistic analysis of two the morphological and molecular characteristics have placed the Carettochelyidae as a close relative to the Trionychidae, the soft-shelled turtles. The impecunious characters that had identified the carettochelyids and trionychids as a monophyletic group had consisted of the union of the left field and right premaxillae, lack of adjunction between the carapace and plastron, and one-third or less(prenominal) clawed digits. The Carettochelys insculpta was ab initio described as a Pleurodire (Ramsay, 1886) and had tell to be among some(prenominal) the freshwater turtles and the sea turtles (Ramsay, 1886). The genus was thus given to a crude family, the Carettochelyidae (Boulenger, 1887) and Baur (1891) was the one who had moved Carettochelys, as well as the family Carettochelyidae, into the Cryptodires. Baur had also brought up the similarities to the Trionychia (Meylan, 1987; Meylan and Gaffney, 1989; Shaffer et al., 1997).

However upstart contractable evidence suggests that Trionychoidea is an disenable group, and that Trionychoidae is a distinctive railway line that recess off very early from other turtle (Krenz et al 2005)Literature CitedAnders G.J. Rhodin, Vagi R. Genorupa (1999). saving location of freshwater overturns in Papua New GuineaAsian Turtle Trade, Chelonian research Foundation, page 129-136Bargeron, M. 1997. The pig nose turtle, Tortuga Gazette, tidy sum 33, No.3Baur, G. 1891. On the relations of Carettochelys, Ramsay. American raw(a)ist 25:631-639. Cann, John, 1978. Tortoises of Australia. black Angus and Robertson Publishers, Sydney, Australia. Cann, John,1998.Australian Freshwater Turtles, Beauworth Publishing Ltd,SingaporeErnst, Carl H. and Roger W. Barbour, 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, capital letter DC. Frair, W (1985).The ambiguous plateless river turtle, Carettochelys, in serological survey, Journal of Herpetology, Vol.19, No.4, pp 515-523Georges A. (1987).The pig nose turtle Warradjan, Australian Natural History, Vol.22, No.5Georges, Arthur and Kennett, Rodney. 1989. Dry-season Distribution and bionomics of Carettochelys insculpta (Chelonia : Carettochelydidae) in Kakadu depicted reject Park, Northern Australia. Aust. Wildl. Res., 16, 323-35Georges, Arthur and Mark Rose, 1993. preservation biology of the pig-nosed turtle. Chelonian saving and biota 1: 3-12, 1993Georges A.,Doody S.,Young J., Cann J. (2000)The Australian Pig-Nosed Turtle. Robey, CanberraGlaessner M. F. 1942. The occurrence of the New Guinea turtle (Carettochelys) in the Miocene of Papua. Rec. Aust. Mus. 21:106?109. Groombridge, B. 1982. I.U.C.N. Amphibia-Reptilia Red Data Book. violate out 1. Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia. I.U.C.N. Publ., Gland, Switzerland. IUCN (2004): 2004 IUCN Red inclination of an orbit of Threatened Species. Krenz, James G. et al. 2005. molecular(a) phylogenetics and phylogenesis of turtles. Molecular Phylogenetics and exploitation 37, 178?191. Meylan, P. A. 1987. The phylogenetic relationships of soft-shelled turtles (Family Trionychidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 186:1-101. Meylan, P. A., and E. S. Gaffney. 1989. The purposeless morphology of the Cretaceous turtle, Adocus, and the relationships among the Trionychoidea. American Museum Novitates 2941:1-60. Shaffer, H. B., P. Meylan, and M. L. McKnight. 1997. Tests of turtle phylogeny: molecular, morphological, and paleontological approaches. Systematic Biology6:235-268. Webb, G.J.W. et all, (1986). Nest, eggs and embryotic learning of Carettochelys insculpta (Chelonia: Charettochelidae) from northern Australia. J. Zool. London, 1B:521-550________________________________________________Amber Amelingmeier, undergraduate at Messiah College, Grantham PA. functional on bachelor?s degree in Biology and a minor in Environmental Science. _________________________________________________ If you want to get a full essay, assign it on our website: Orderessay

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