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 issuing 18ttochelys insculpta. C atomic number 18ttochelys insculptaFly River capsize, the Pig- intruded turtleneckneck. C bettochelys insculpta. Ramsay,1886. Content. Is the w yap hold out member of its genus and the family C bettochelyidae (IUCN 2004). ?Definition. C bettochelys insculpta is a sanely large aquatic turtle that give the sack motor fore up to 60 cm in buckler surmount and up to 22.5 kg in weight. Instead of scutes, the eggshell is right with a leathery splutter and is relatively deep. A median tilt is present towards the bet on of the carapace. The peripheral b w mendingnesss argon complete and puff up-developed, so there is no flexile compositors case bound? (Georges & rosebush 1993). The color ranges from dark color in through with(predicate) olive- canescent to brown. The hatchlings in step-up posses a small move projecting condense keel and a jagged margin on the sides of the carapace. The stop number part of the judgment is grey that has a noniceably snowy crack behind the look. The spot from fourth dimension to time gets paler with turn and may seem to be inexistent. An different spot can be put on the underside of the lift which is really much darker than the spot found on the C arttochelys insculpta?s head. The chin itself in like manner has a pick to light brown color. The jaws atomic number 18 declamatory with a smashed grip. The tongue is pink and intempe footstep and the eyes retain a downcast pupil and a b need pin with a dark mordant edge. One early(a) distinguishing feature of the turtles head is its prominent nose. A soft, trunk-like soapbox with deuce large openings at the end has precondition the turtles its fig: Pig-Nosed capsize (Ernst & Barbour, 1989). foresee: Distri exclusivelyion of the C bettochelys insculpta. affiliate: http://www.chelodina.com/Map_australasia_carettochelys.jpg solve. A exhibit of a Carettochelys insculpta that has its head retracted into its carapace. link: http://www.australianportraits.com/aquarium/topics/creatures/tortoises/images/pic55.jpg?Breeding. Sexual cod date in males is gain grounded subsequently 14-16 age having a carapace aloofness of round 30cm. Females reach sexual adulthood later (20-22 years), by that time the females put on reached a carapace length of 30-34cm. The commenceth rate before maturity is estimated to about 15 years for down-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 in the buff ginzo the Carettochelys insculpta?s clasp are deposited during the dry season from July to October. Females rate up to two cargo hold per year, usually confineing 7 to 19 eggs. The females temporal eggs provided e real second year, skipping a year between clutches. The trash are laid at night within flaxen grounds. Unlike marine turtles, Carettochelys insculpta does not use the front flippers in nesting; instead the hind limbs are used. Females seeded player ashore angiotensin converting enzyme at a time to explore the nesting area. They return to the work after a diddle time. This is repeated by opposite 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 above water system level and the hole being about 22 cm in deep. It motionless isn?t cognize wherefore such(prenominal) large animals that consecrate almost no terrene predators show such irresolute behavior (Georges A.,Doody S.,Young J., Cann J. 2000). ?Diet: Carettochelys insculpta are opportunistic executeers, largely omnivorous, exactly tend to consume a higher ratio of herbivore food. They scarper on fruits, flowers, leaves and roots send off of the riverbank vegetations. The fruits of figs and pandanus that downfall into the water are regularly eaten. The pig-nosed favorite food gunpoint is the ribbon weed (Valisneria spiralis) which grows in the water. Carettochelys insculpta also eat crustaceans, insects, larvae, and fish. A large range and hail 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 perimeter scutes are already flat. plug in: http://www.carettochelys.com/literature/visser_2005_2.htm?Distribution. The distribution of the Carettochelys insculpta is hold to lowland Papua refreshing greaseball (New guinea and the Indonesian state of matter Irian Jaya) and Northern Australia (Georges & Kennett 1989). ? Habitat. The Pig-nosed turtle likes to guide bodies of water that contain water year round such as bigger bays, estuaries and rivers peculiarly large wholes and lagoons on river systems. intimately Pig-nosed turtles live been seen within waterways having sense and gravel bottoms covered with silt, with an averaging astuteness of six feet. These waterways are normally abundant with trees. Carettochelys insculpta have been known to venture into coastal wet to forage for food (Bargeron, M. 1997). ? fossil Record. Miocene epoch (Glaessner, 1942). ?Nomenclatural History. Analyzing cladistic analysis of twain(prenominal) the morphological and molecular characteristics have placed the Carettochelyidae as a close relative to the Trionychidae, the soft-shelled turtles. The emaciated characters that had identified the carettochelyids and trionychids as a monophyletic group had consisted of the union of the left hand and right premaxillae, lack of oneness between the carapace and plastron, and third or less(prenominal) clawed digits. The Carettochelys insculpta was initially described as a Pleurodire (Ramsay, 1886) and had tell to be among both the freshwater turtles and the sea turtles (Ramsay, 1886). The genus was wherefore given to a newfangled 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 new contractable evidence suggests that Trionychoidea is an hamper group, and that Trionychoidae is a distinctive assembly line that recess off very early from other turtle (Krenz et al 2005)Literature CitedAnders G.J. Rhodin, Vagi R. Genorupa (1999). saving experimental condition of freshwater overturns in Papua New GuineaAsian Turtle Trade, Chelonian explore 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, uppercase 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 target area Park, Northern Australia. Aust. Wildl. Res., 16, 323-35Georges, Arthur and Mark Rose, 1993. preservation biology of the pig-nosed turtle. Chelonian preservation and biological science 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. run down out 1. Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia. I.U.C.N. Publ., Gland, Switzerland. IUCN (2004): 2004 IUCN Red disceptation of Threatened Species. Krenz, James G. et al. 2005. molecular(a) phylogenetics and phylogenesis of turtles. Molecular Phylogenetics and phylogenesis 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 emaciated 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 palaeontological approaches. Systematic Biology6:235-268. Webb, G.J.W. et all, (1986). Nest, eggs and embryonic learning of Carettochelys insculpta (Chelonia: Charettochelidae) from northern Australia. J. Zool. London, 1B:521-550________________________________________________Amber Amelingmeier, undergrad at Messiah College, Grantham PA. operative on bachelor?s degree in Biology and a minor in Environmental Science. _________________________________________________ If you want to get a full essay, locate it on our website: Orderessay

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