Rheodytes leukops
| Fitzroy River turtle | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Family: | Chelidae |
| Subfamily: | Chelodininae |
| Genus: | Rheodytes |
| Species: | R. leukops |
| Binomial name | |
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Rheodytes leukops Legler & Cann, 1980 |
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| Synonyms | |
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The Fitzroy River turtle (Rheodytes leukops) is a species of freshwater turtle in the Chelidae family. It is the only surviving member of the genus Rheodytes, the other member being the extinct form Rheodytes devisi. The species is endemic to south eastern Queensland, Australia and only found in riffle zones of the Fitzroy River.
The Fitzroy River turtle is light to dark brown in color and growing to approximately 260mm in carapace length. The shell of hatchlings is highly serrated (up to 95 mm) while adults have a rounded, smooth edged shell. The plastron is lighter in color and tapers anteriorally and posteriorally. The carapace is highly reticulated to the naked eye but this is actually a series of parallel ridges with occasional cross ridging under low magnification, however the plastron is smooth. The scutes are very thin and underlying sutures in both the carapace and plastron are visible through them in all but the darkest individuals. Pictured in the taxobox is a carapace of a subadult Rheodytes leukops (242mm length) showing the very visible sutures that can be seen through the scutes, still in place. The species, and in fact the genus, can also be identified by its very thin carapace bones a character used in diagnosing the related fossil species Rheodytes devisi. The upper surface of their necks are scattered with blunt to pointed conical skin tubercles that do not appear to have any specialized follicular centres (Legler and Winokur, 1979). The species has a single pair of barbels on the lower jaw. The Fitzroy River turtle is capable of obtaining up to 70% of necessary oxygen through its anus, in a process called cloacal respiration. Through this process, the Fitzroy River turtle can remain underwater for up to three weeks.
This turtle is an adept bottom feeder, preying on terrestrial and aquatic insects, macroinvertebrates, crustaceans, algae, aquatic snails, worms, freshwater sponges and aquatic plants such as ribbon weed (Vallisneria sp.). Stomach flushing has demonstrated that most of the diet was made up of macroinvertebrates with some freshwater sponges.
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Wikipedia