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River Turtle in Danger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

Miguel Alvarez del Toro ,
Russell A. Mittermeier  and
John B. Iverson
Miguel Alvarez del Toro
Affiliation:
Director, Instituto de Historia Natural, Departamento de Zoologia, Apartado postal numero 6, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico.
Russell A. Mittermeier
Affiliation:
New York Zoological Society, Bronx Zoo, Bronx, NY 10460, USA.
John B. Iverson
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Sciences, Florida State Museum, Museum Road, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
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A large river turtle Dermatemys mawei, found only in the coastal lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico, is becoming rare throughout most of its restricted range. It is found from central Veracruz, Mexico, eastward through Guatemala and Belize, but not in the Yucatan Peninsula, and it is heavily hunted for its meat. The only living representative of the Dermatemydidae, a turtle family known from as early as the Cretaceous, its closest living relatives are the mud turtles (Kinosternidae), and it is not as closely related to the snapping turtles (Chelydridae) as previously thought.4,5,9,20 In the latest classification of turtles the Dermatemydidae are placed in the Superfamily Trionychoidea of the Infraorder Cryptodira.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , November 1979 , pp. 170 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1979

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