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Elseya uberrima; Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Pleurodira
Family:	Chelidae
Genus:	Elseya
Subgenus:	Pelocomastes
Species:	E. uberrima
Binomial name
	Elseya uberrima; (De Vis, 1897)

Elseya uberrima is a Pliocene species of extinct Australian snapping turtle.

Taxonomy

During his time at the Queensland Museum, Charles Walter De Vis described a number of fossil turtles from the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia.^[1] All four species described were declared a single diagnosable species by Thomson, 2000.^[1]

To avoid confusion the synonymy for the species is as follows:

Elseya uberrima (De Vis, 1897^[2])
- Chelymys uberrima De Vis, 1897: 3^[2]
- Chelymys antiqua De Vis 1897: 4^[2]
- Chelymys arata De Vis 1897: 5^[2]
- Pelocomastes ampla De Vis 1897: 6–7^[2]

This synonymy has made the genus name Pelocomastes a junior synonym of Elseya and in their recent revision of that genus Thomson et al. (2015)^[3] resurrected Pelocomastes as a subgenus to represent the Queensland clade of the Elseya. Therefore, Elseya (Pelocomastes) uberrima is the type species for this subgenus.

A) Lectotype of Elseya uberrima; B) Lectotype of Elseya arata; C-D) dorsal and ventral views of the lectotype of Pelocomastes ampla. — A) Lectotype of *Elseya uberrima*; B) lectotype of *Elseya arata*; C-D) dorsal and ventral views of the lectotype of *Pelocomastes ampla*.

References

^ ^a ^b Thomson SA. 2000. A Revision of the Fossil Chelid Turtles (Pleurodira) Described by C.W. De Vis, 1897. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 45 (2): 593–598. (Brisbane).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e De Vis CW. 1897. The extinct freshwater turtles of Queensland. Annals of the Queensland Museum 3: 3–7.
^ Thomson, S., Amepou, Y., Anamiato, J. & Georges, A. 2015. A new species and subgenus of Elseya (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) from New Guinea. Zootaxa 4006(1):59–82. Preview (PDF)