Fujian Pond Turtle

Taxobox
name = Fujian Pond Turtle


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia
ordo = Testudines
familia = Geoemydidae
subfamilia = Geoemydinae
genus = "Mauremys"
species = "M." × iversoni"
binomial = "Mauremys" × iversoni"
binomial_authority = (Pritchard & McCord, 1991)
synonyms ="Mauremys iversoni" Pritchard & McCord, 1991

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 a 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). [Parham "et al." (2001), Buskirk "et al." (2005)]

ee also

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

Footnotes

References

*|year=2000|id=12877|title=Mauremys iversoni|downloaded=29 July 2007
*aut|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. [http://cc.usu.edu/~crfeldman/Buskirk_et_al_05.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (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. [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=4282B27D084B8B508074F736B4D11AD7.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=90491 HTML abstract] Erratum: "Animal Conservation" 5(1): 86 [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=100113&fulltextType=ER&fileId=S1367943002001117 HTML abstract]