Roti Island snake-necked turtle
| Roti Island snake-necked turtle | |
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| Roti Island snake-necked turtle at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Suborder: | Pleurodira |
| Family: | Chelidae |
| Subfamily: | Chelodininae |
| Genus: | Chelodina |
| Subgenus: | (Chelodina) |
| Species: | C. mccordi |
| Binomial name | |
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Chelodina mccordi Rhodin, 1994 |
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| Synonyms | |
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The Roti Island snake-necked turtle (Chelodina mccordi ), also commonly known as McCord's snakeneck turtle, is a critically endangered turtle species from Rote Island in Indonesia.
A subspecies, Chelodina mccordi timorensis, living on East Timor, is sometimes considered as its own species, called the Timor snake-neck turtle (Chelodina timorensis).
Chelodina mccordi belongs to the genus Chelodina (Australian snake-necked turtles) within the family Chelidae (Austro-South American side-necked turtles).
Chelodina mccordi roteensis, another subspecies, is confined to two lakes in Landu Leko district in the north of Rote, including Lake Undun.
The Roti Island snake-necked turtle was split from the New Guinea snake-necked turtle and regarded as distinct species in 1994 after Dr. Anders Rhodin, director of the Chelonian Research Foundation in Lunenburg (Massachusetts), found differences between the two species. The first snake-necked turtles on Rote Island had been discovered in 1891 by George Albert Boulenger.
Both the specific name, mccordi, and one of the common names, McCord's snakeneck turtle, are in honor of Dr. William Patrick McCord (born 1950), a veterinarian and turtle expert from Hopewell Junction, New York.
The carapace can reach a length of 18–24 centimetres (7.1–9.4 in). The color of the carapace is a pale grey brown. Occasionally there are also specimens which have a chestnut-coloured hue. The plastron is a pale buff white. The neck, which is nearly as long as the carapace, is dark brown on the upperparts with round tubercles. The underparts are light beige. The iris is black surrounded by a white ring.
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Wikipedia