Fujian pond turtle

Fujian pond turtle
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Geoemydidae
Subfamily:	Geoemydinae
Genus:	"Mauremys"
Species:	"M." × iversoni
Binomial name
"Mauremys" × iversoni Pritchard & McCord, 1991
Synonyms
Mauremys iversoni Pritchard & McCord, 1991 Mauremys mutica x Cuora trifasciata — Fritz & Havaš, 2007

The Fujian pond turtle ("Mauremys" × iversoni ) is a possibly also naturally occurring intergeneric hybrid turtle in the Geoemydidae family (formerly Bataguridae) produced in larger numbers by Chinese turtle farms as a "copy" of the golden coin turtle Cuora trifasciata. It appears to occur in China and Vietnam. Before its actual origin became known, it was listed as data deficient in the IUCN Red List.

The parents of this hybrid are the Asian yellow pond turtle and the golden coin turtle, with the male apparently usually of the latter species. While it is not unusual for perfectly valid geoemydid species to arise from hybridization, recognition as a species would require that the hybrids are fertile and constitute a phenotypically distinct and self-sustaining lineage. This does not appear to be the case in this "species" as only single specimens have been found rather than an entire population of these turtles and captive breeding has rarely been successful as most males proved to be infertile (while females are fully fertile).^[1]

The Fujian pond turtle's scientific name was given in dedication to American herpetologist John B. Iverson.^[2]

See also

• "Mauremys" × pritchardi
• "Ocadia" × glyphistoma
• Ocadia philippeni
• Cuora serrata

References

Footnotes

1. Parham et al. (2001), Buskirk et al. (2005).
2. 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. (Mauremys iversoni, p. 131).

General sources

• Asian Turtle Trade Working Group (2000). Mauremys iversoni. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 29 July 2007.
• Buskirk, James R.; Parham, James F.; Feldman, Chris R. (2005). On the hybridisation between two distantly related Asian turtles (Testudines: Sacalia × Mauremys). Salamandra 41: 21-26. PDF fulltext.
• Fritz, Uwe; Havaš, Peter. (2007). Checklist of Chelonians of the World. Vertebrate Zoology 57 (2): 149-368. (Mauremys iversoni, p. 228).
• Parham, James Ford; Simison, W. Brian; Kozak, Kenneth H.; Feldman, Chris R.; Shi, Haitao. (2001). New Chinese turtles: endangered or invalid? A reassessment of two species using mitochondrial DNA, allozyme electrophoresis and known-locality specimens. Animal Conservation 4 (4): 357–367. HTML abstract Erratum: Animal Conservation 5 (1): 86. HTML abstract.
• Pritchard, Peter C. H.; McCord, William P. (1991). A New Emydid Turtle from China. Herpetologica 47 (2): 139-147. (Mauremys iversoni, new species).