Big Bend slider

Big Bend slider
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Emydidae
Subfamily:	Deirochelyinae
Genus:	Trachemys
Species:	T. gaigeae
Binomial name
Trachemys gaigeae Hartweg, 1939
Synonyms Nota bene: Dashes indicate scientific names which are simply new combinations, i.e., not new taxa.
Trachemys gaigeae gaigeae Pseudemys scripta gaigeae Hartweg, 1939 Pseudemys gaigeae — Stejneger & Barbour, 1939 Pseudemys scripta gagei Zweig & Crenshaw, 1957 (ex errore) Chrysemys scripta gaigeae — H.M. Smith & Taylor, 1966 Pseudemys scripta gaigei Ernst, 1967 (ex errore) Chrysemys gaigeae — Weaver & Rose, 1967 Pseudemys scripta gaigea Degenhardt & Christiansen, 1974 (ex errore) Chrysemys gaigae Ashton, Edwards & Pisani, 1976 (ex errore) Chrysemys gaigea — Morafka, 1977 Chrysemys scripta gaigae — Morafka, 1977 Trachemys nebulosa gaigeae — Ward, 1984 Pseudemys scripta gaigae — , 1985 Trachemys scripta gaigeae — Iverson, 1985 Trachemys gaigeae — Dixon, 1987 Trachemys gaigae — Williamson, Hyder & Applegarth, 1994 Trachemys ornata gaigeae — Walls, 1996 Trachemys gaigeae gaigeae — Seidel, 2002 Trachemys scripta gaigae — Gurley, 2003 Trachemys nebulosa gaigae — Joseph-Ouni, 2004 Trachemys gaigeae hartwegi Pseudemys scripta hartwegi Legler, 1980 (nomen nudum) Chrysemys scripta hartwegi — Obst, 1983 Trachemys scripta hartwegi — Iverson, 1985 Pseudemys scripta hartwegi Legler, 1990 Trachemys scripta hartwegi — Iverson, 1992 Trachemys ornata hartwegi — Walls, 1996 Trachemys nebulosa hartwegi — Bringsøe, 2001 Trachemys gaigeae hartwegi — Seidel, 2002

Nota bene: Dashes indicate scientific names which are simply new combinations, i.e., not new taxa.

The Big Bend slider (Trachemys gaigeae) is a species of aquatic turtle endemic to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

T. gaigeae is native to the United States in the states of New Mexico and Texas, and to northern Mexico in the state of Chihuahua. It is found primarily in the Rio Grande and Rio Conchos river systems.

The epithet, gaigeae, is in honor of American herpetologist Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige, who collected the first specimen in the Big Bend region of Texas in 1928.^[1]

The species was first described by professor of zoology at the University of Michigan, Dr. Norman Edouard Hartweg, in 1939. It was for a time considered to be a species of cooter, genus Pseudemys, and then a subspecies of the pond slider, Trachemys scripta, but it was granted full species status, though many sources still refer to it by its various synonyms.

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Wikipedia