Zulia toad-headed sideneck

Zulia toad-headed sideneck
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Pleurodira
Family:	Chelidae
Genus:	Mesoclemmys
Species:	M. zuliae
Binomial name
Mesoclemmys zuliae (Pritchard & Trebbau, 1984)[2]
Synonyms[3][4]
Phrynops (Batrachemys) zuliae Pritchard & Trebbau, 1984 Batrachemys zuliae — Groombridge, 1988 Mesoclemmys zuliae — Bour & Zaher, 2005

The Zulia toad-headed sideneck (Mesoclemmys zuliae), also known commonly as the Zulia toad-headed turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Chelidae. The species is endemic to Venezuela.

Etymology

The specific name, zuliae, refers to the Venezuelan state of Zulia.^[5]

Geographic range

The type locality of M. zuliae is Cano Madre Vieja near El Guayabo, Distrito Colón, Zulia, Venezuela.^[6]

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of M. zuliae is freshwater inland bodies of water.^[1]

References

1. Tortoise & Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (1996). "Mesoclemmys zuliae (errata version published in 2016). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 1996: e.T17083A97271125. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T17083A6797773.en. Downloaded on 15 February 2021.
2. Pritchard, Peter C.H.; Trebbau, Pedro (1984). The Turtles of Venezuela. Contributions in Herpetology, Number 2. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 403 pp. (Phrynops zuliae, new species, pp. 135–142).
3. Fritz, Uwe; Havaš, Peter (2007). "Checklist of Chelonians of the World". Vertebrate Zoology. 57 (2): 340. doi:10.3897/vz.57.e30895. ISSN 1864-5755.
4. van Dijk, Peter Paul; Iverson, John B.; Shaffer, H. Bradley; Bour, Roger; Rhodin, Anders G.J. (2012). "Turtles of the World, 2012 Update: Annotated Checklist of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status". Chelonian Research Monographs (5): 000.243–000.328.
5. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Mesoclemmys zuliae, p. 294).
6. Mesoclemmys zuliae at the Reptile Database

Further reading

• Bour R, Zaher H (2005). "A new species of Mesoclemmys, from the open formations of northeastern Brazil (Chelonii, Chelidae)". Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo 45 (24): 295–311. (Mesoclemmys zuliae, new combination). (in English, with an abstract in Portuguese).
• Rojas-Runjaic FJM (2009). "Mesoclemmys zuliae – Die geheimnisvolle Krötenkopfschildkröte aus dem Süden des Maracaibo-Sees ". Reptilia, Münster 14 (80): 34–39. (in German).
• Vargas-Ramírez M, Michaels J, Castaño-Mora OV, Cárdenas-Arevalo G (2012). "Weak genetic divergence between the two South American toad-headed turtles Mesoclemmys dahli and M. zuliae (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae)". Amphibia-Reptilia 33 (3/4): 373–385.