Pond Slider

description

Fig. 13 (Engl. Pond Slider; Geo. წითელყურა კუ, tsitelk’ura ku)

An Annotated Checklist of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia with DNA Barcoding Data and Taxonomic Remarks

description

The modern bite marked specimen (Figure 1: SAAF Trachemys) is 24.5 cm long and 19 cm wide. Some of the keratinous scutes are still in place, especially on the carapace, which obscures some of the underlying individual tooth marks in the bone (Figure 1 A). A line of serial bite marks is associated with a radiating fracture that extends from midline on the posterior margin of the carapace anteriorly roughly two-thirds the length of the shell, angling to the right and terminating roughly halfway between the shell’s midline and its right lateral margin. Smaller, associated fractures radiate from this main break, one propagating posterolaterally towards the right margin of the shell and others forming a concentric, depressed region along the right margin of the longest fracture. A 44.61 mm by 15.19 mm D-shaped fragment of the carapace was displaced and lost some time prior to collection. Four individual tooth marks (widths of 3.59 mm, 4.87 mm, 5.03 mm, 6.11 mm) are visible along the margin of this break, but the fracture, the ventral displacement of the right margin along that break, and the missing fragment of bone make reliable measurements of each tooth mark problematic. A single, bi

Differentiating convergent pathologies in turtle shells using computed tomographic scanning of modern and fossil bone

conservation

Singapore conservation status. Not Applicable. Conservation priority. None, non-native species. IUCN conservation status. Least Concern [2011].

Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution

discussion

Remarks. Being the world’s most popular turtle in the pet trade, and with over 52 million individuals exported from the United States to foreign markets between 1989 and 1997 (Global Invasive Species Database 2019 b), T. scripta is now considered one of IUCN’s 100 World’s Worst Invasive Species (Lowe et al. 2004). Since the first exports, individuals of T. scripta have been released by their owners worldwide, and has become invasive in about 64 countries (TTWG 2021; Global Invasive Species Database 2019 b). To this day, T. scripta remains popular in the pet trade and individuals are continually being released. In Singapore, T. scripta is believed to have been introduced as early as the 1960 s, with imports reaching up to 270,000 hatchlings per year (Ng & Lim 2010) and exceeding more than 1.2 million individuals in 2006 and 2007 (Ng 2009). A large number of the imports were also used to supplement turtle meat consumption of Pelodiscus sinensis (see Ng 2009). Trachemys scripta is now Singapore’s most common turtle species and is found in each and every waterbody throughout the entire country (Baker & Lim 2012), including mangroves (A. Figueroa pers. obs.). Population estimates at Eco

Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution